Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders

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

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

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

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

Every shop owner knows the workforce problem by heart. The trades got denigrated, tech ed programs got gutted, and a whole generation of kids never found out that a manufacturing career was even an option. We have all heard that speech a hundred times. What we rarely hear is a practical, repeatable way to actually fix it.

In this GenCNC series episode, we sit down with two people who built one. Dave Hataj is the second-generation owner of Edgerton Gear and the founder of Craftsman with Character, a semester-long program that pairs job shadowing with a character and worldview curriculum. Courtney Silver runs Ketchie in North Carolina, where she and her husband Andy took Dave's curriculum and launched their own version, Opportunity Knocks.

The through line is simple. Kids are starving for two things, purpose and community, and the shop floor is one of the best places on earth to give them both. Dave shares how a 2014 experiment with ten students grew into a Navy-funded program running across multiple states. Courtney shows why it is far less of a lift than you would think, roughly two hours a week for fourteen weeks with a handful of students.

We also get into the payoff owners do not expect. Reverse mentoring from young employees, a culture where machinists suddenly want to be on camera, productivity that climbs year over year, and stories like Miguel, a first-generation immigrant who fell in love with the trade, worked six to ten in the morning before school, and just bought his first home.

If you have ever done a plant tour for a school and wondered whether it actually mattered, this one reframes the whole thing. As Dave puts it, we make gears as a vehicle to invest in people.

• (2:48) Dave on the origins of Craftsman with Character as a second-generation owner of Edgerton Gear
• (7:02) The Navy's two million dollar, three-year contract to take the program national
• (8:30) Inside the Craftsman Code, from I'm not the center of the universe to the world needs me
• (10:30) Why you need to head to Kennametal's booth at IMTS
• (11:37) Courtney on discovering Dave's work during COVID and launching Opportunity Knocks
• (15:25) Why it's not a big lift: twenty team members, six students, two hours a week
• (17:11) Continuous improvement: field trips, supply chain tours, and a Mastercam capstone part
• (23:31) Reverse mentoring and the young energy that re-energizes the team
• (24:40) Twelve years of rising productivity from more engaged, purpose-driven employees
• (26:17) The DN Solutions install video shot by interns (and a new content culture)
• (29:26) Breakfast, gratitude, and the lesson on showing up on time
• (30:30) Turn website visitors into buyers with Navu's AI chat
• (31:42) Learn more about Miguel, a first-generation immigrant who fell in love with the trade
• (34:10) Break room culture and crews that stick around after shift
• (37:01) From feeling less than to finding a joyful place to belong
• (39:16) The mindset flip: we make gears as a vehicle to invest in people
• (40:07) Get in the room: the Job Shops Workshop and reception at IMTS
• (40:58) Miguel buying his first home, and the ripple effect on a community
• (42:56) How to start, facilitator and mentor training, plus a track for shops without a school partner
• (45:00) Manufacturers as an army that can heal society by being the hero for one kid
• (48:52) Practical encouragement to start now

• Craftsman with Character
• Edgerton Gear
• Ketchie
• The Craftsman Code by Dave Hataj
• Machine Shop Mastery, Episode 106 with Dave Hataj
• Kennametal
• Navu
• IMTS
• Oscar Mike Foundation

• Dave Hataj, Edgerton Gear
• Craftsman with Character
• Courtney Silver, Ketchie

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

IMTS is 1.2 million square feet spread across six days, and the average visitor only spends about 2.7 of them on the floor. That math is exactly why walking in without a plan means seeing a fraction of what you came for. In this episode we sit down with Bonnie Gurney and Michelle Edmondson from AMT, the team that builds IMTS, to talk through how to actually get value out of the biggest manufacturing show in the country.

We're about six and a half weeks out and registration is running 29% ahead of 2024, so the energy is real. Bonnie and Michelle break down what's new for the 100th anniversary show: the 10 technology sectors, the Industrial AI arena with 40 first-time exhibitors, a bigger defense presence, and a conference lineup, from Elevate to the job shop and LATAM tracks, that too many people still treat as a hidden gem.

We also make the case for why you should go even if you're not buying this year. As Mike puts it, you don't have time not to go. You go to see the solutions you'll need in two or three years, the way he spotted a machine tending robot in 2018 and finally bought it in 2022. And this year, a plan-my-route feature built into the floor plan app is a genuinely practical use of AI.

There's plenty happening on the floor too, from the main stage schedule and the 100-year history of the show to the machine tool we're giving away with DN Solutions and Kennametal. Mostly, though, this is a conversation about showing up prepared and getting the most out of your days in Chicago.

If you're heading to IMTS 2026, this is the planning conversation to hear first. Come find us in the Hennig booth, and let's make some chips.

What's Covered in this Episode

• (0:00) Why every visitor needs a game plan before the doors open
• (1:21) Six and a half weeks out, with registration up 29% over 2024
• (3:25) The scale of IMTS: 1.2 million square feet and 500-plus semis a day
• (7:56) The August 5th pre-IMTS party for Oscar Mike and the Manufacturing Pathways Consortium
• (10:04) Elevate: powered by AMT and Women in Manufacturing
• (10:56) What's new: the 10 technology sectors that map the show floor
• (13:00) Why the conference and education lineup is the show's hidden gem
• (17:58) Learn more about Elevate, the Women in manufacturing conference
• (20:45) Kennametal's Next Level Shop and a bike giveaway on the show floor
• (21:47) 100 years of IMTS, from a 62,000 square foot science fair in 1927
• (27:06) The main stage schedule: capital decisions, AI, and the coolest stuff we saw
• (28:31) How the machine giveaway works: register, collect chips, earn entries, win Friday
• (31:09) Find your next leader with Hire MFG Leaders
• (31:38) Why "you don't have time not to go" is the real case for IMTS
• (35:47) A practical AI use case: let the floor plan app build your route
• (37:48) Poll your team: What should you look for at IMTS?
• (39:17) The biggest changes coming to IMTS 2026

• IMTS 2026
• Register for the IMTS machine giveaway: https://www.makingchips.com
• Hire MFG Leaders
• Elevate, powered by AMT and Women in Manufacturing
• DN Solutions
• Oscar Mike Foundation
• Manufacturing Pathways Consortium

• IMTS
• AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology
• IMTS on LinkedIn

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

Most machine shop owners spend twenty years learning the lesson Stone figured out before he turned 21: get great at one thing, and say no to almost everything else. He bought his first CNC at 15 to make knife handles, started taking billable work at 19, and now runs a precision shop in North Phoenix that goes after the tight-tolerance medical work a lot of shops won't touch.

This one is part of our GenCNC series, and our co-host Nush, who's part of this generation herself, jumps in with the questions the rest of us wish we'd asked at that age.

We get into how he actually built it: growing on cash flow and machine loans instead of outside investors, learning to program after hours with a tool and die mentor, and figuring out how to price work when you're brand new and have no idea what the market will bear. Stone's edge isn't a secret process. It's consistency, a refusal to send anything out of spec, and a willingness to take on parts he doesn't yet know how to make.

He's also refreshingly honest about the parts nobody posts. The crashes, the jobs that go sideways, the days the whole thing feels like it's crumbling. His answer is mentors, a tight network of shop owners who actually pick up the phone, and the discipline to keep the lows from getting too low.

Whether you're thinking about starting a shop or you've run one for thirty years, there's something here. Know where to spend money and where not to. Build a small team of people you can pay well. And find the niche where being excellent actually pays. That's making chips.

What's Covered in this Episode

• (0:52) Kicking off another GenCNC episode with co-host Nush
• (1:29) Meet Stone: from reselling balisong knives and 3D printing to buying a Tormach 440 at 15
• (4:21) Quitting two jobs to go all in at 19 (and quickly building a team)
• (6:41) Solve your biggest headache with CLA
• (7:50) Funding growth through profit and machine loans, not investors
• (11:04) Moving out of the garage and into a commercial space
• (12:11) Learning to program after hours with mentor John Schaefer
• (13:34) The art and science of quoting and pricing work
• (16:25) Focus on what you're good at instead of chasing every job
• (18:16) Why consistency and never shipping out-of-spec parts wins customers
• (21:45) Why young entrepreneurs need to be on LinkedIn
• (23:17) The opportunity gap and getting young people into manufacturing
• (25:27) How Stone started building his team (and who does what)
• (27:15) Find people who actually fit with Hire MFG Leaders
• (27:44) The process of hiring employees (and the paperwork that comes with it)
• (30:01) How saying yes to jobs you don't know how to do can pay off
• (32:25) It's never too late for a mentor—at any stage of your career
• (36:45) Success is perseverance and the mental game, not just great parts
• (39:44) Advice for young shop owners: know where to spend money
• (42:15) Expanding to a bigger building and going after big work with a VF-9
• (43:20) Take your shop to the next level with DN Solutions
• (44:33) The five-year vision: five employees, twelve machines, automation
• (53:00) Why 100% inspection and a CMM are worth it

• ST1 Precision
• ProShop ERP
• Xometry
• Tormach
• Haas Automation
• Saunders Machine Works
• CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen)
• Hire MFG Leaders
• DN Solutions

• ST1 Precision

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

Most shop owners have stood in front of a shiny new machine and felt the pull. Buy it, and the work will come. Tim Drinkwater of Accurate Machine Products has lived both sides of that bet, the one that nearly buried him and the one that showed up as a free machining center.

This conversation sits right where two of our current series meet: Gen CNC, where we talk to founders who started young, and our workforce development series. Tim started his shop in a garage in 2007, and he's blunt about how a young founder should spend those first dollars. Cash is worth more than tools you don't need. Customers come before capability. And sometimes buying an existing shop beats building one from scratch.

We also get into the mistake that can quietly kill a shop. Tim bought a brand new lathe for a firearms customer who never signed a contract and then walked away. Mike shares the flip side he keeps running into, walking through shops with gorgeous, idle equipment bought on a customer's promise that never turned into a purchase order. One of those build-outs is the reason a whole company ended up for sale.

Then there's the fun part. Tim won a DN Solutions SVM 4100 in the DN and Kennametal giveaway, put it to work on challenging tool steel parts, and liked it enough to go buy a second one. There's another machine giveaway coming at IMTS this year, and you can get in on it at makingchips.com/giveaway.

The back half is all about people. When applicants dried up, Tim went straight to the high schools, joined the Craftsman with Character program, and stopped using the word machinist because most students have no idea what it means. It's the same thing we keep coming back to on this show. The parts matter, but the people are what carry a shop into the next generation.

• (0:00) A machine giveaway teaser, and why Tim's story matters
• (1:31) Starting Accurate Machine Products in a garage in 2007
• (3:22) What the shop makes, from jet ski parts to finish packaging
• (4:43) Advice for young founders: cash beats tools you don't need
• (8:00) eBay machines and the leap to the first brand new machine
• (9:16) A new lathe, a firearms customer, and no contract to back it up
• (11:31) Beautiful equipment gathering dust: the shop that went up for sale
• (13:51) Take your shop high-end with DN Solutions
• (15:02) Winning a DN Solutions SVM 4100 in the DN and Kennametal giveaway
• (16:45) Turning the win into S7 tool steel work and a 4+1 upgrade
• (17:57) Buying a second SVM 4100 and standardizing on one control
• (20:21) Dial in your workholding with SMW Autoblok
• (21:10) DN service put to the test: the contactor gremlin
• (23:18) From zero applicants to working with the youngest generation
• (24:56) Youth apprenticeships and rebranding machinist to precision metal cutting
• (28:38) Rhett's story: four years, his own key, and a CMMC future
• (30:38) The industry needs accountants and coders, not just machinists
• (33:53) Invest in your leadership at Elevate during IMTS 2026
• (34:45) Getting your crew and local students to IMTS
• (40:39) MakingChips at IMTS 2026: find us in the AME/Hennig booth

• DN Solutions
• Kennametal
• SMW Autoblok
• Dave Hataj with Craftsman with Character
• Elevate powered by AMT (IMTS 2026)
• IMTS
• MakingChips Machine Giveaway

• Accurate Machine Products
• Tim Drinkwater on LinkedIn
• [email protected]

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

AI is going to be everywhere at IMTS this September, and if you walk the floor without a filter, it'll make your head spin. So we brought in someone whose whole job is helping manufacturers tell the real thing from the marketing fluff.

Ryan Kelly, VP of Technology at AMT, joins us to break the noise into something usable. He walks through a simple way to sort every AI claim you'll see into three layers: the hyperscalers and cloud platforms laying the foundation, the AI native tools that couldn't have existed a few years ago, and the embedded AI features showing up as new buttons in the CAD, CAM, and ERP systems you already run.

Then we get into physical AI, the part that actually matters for a machine shop. It's the loop that takes information from the physical world, lets an AI reason on it, and sends a decision back to the machine or the robot in close to real time. Nick's tool load monitoring, Paul's native machine monitoring in ProShop, Mike's managing 60 jobs a day by exception, they're all versions of the same idea. The catch is data. If the grammar of your data isn't good enough, the AI will hand you an answer you can't trust.

Ryan also previews what AMT is building at the show: a new Industrial AI Arena with 32 exhibitors, a one day Industrial AI Conference focused on the factory floor instead of TED-talk futurism, and an Emerging Technology Center where, alongside Oak Ridge National Lab, they'll be making and flying drones right off the line. Three quadcopter models, a fresh one every couple of minutes, with the ability to change the design on a dime and ramp right back into production.

Whether you're already wired up or still getting your data in order, there's something at IMTS for wherever you are on the journey. Take stock of your readiness before you go, bring your real problems to the vendors, and you'll come home with something you can use on Monday. That's making chips.

• (0:00) Drones that fly themselves right off the assembly line
• (2:11) Ryan's back: the tariff comment that drew hundreds of responses
• (4:40) Boost spindle uptime without adding headcount with the Hennig Workflow
• (5:40) Meet Ryan Kelly of AMT, and why this year feels like AI-MTS
• (7:16) A filter for the floor: the three layers of AI at IMTS
• (11:42) Turn AI buzzwords into outcomes at the Industrial AI Conference at IMTS
• (12:30) How to shop for AI: bring your problem, not your intimidation
• (13:58) Inside the new Industrial AI Arena: 32 exhibitors and the ETC
• (17:15) Know your AI readiness before you walk the floor
• (19:41) Why it's worth seeing tech you're not ready for yet
• (21:37) Two frameworks: the data-to-application stack and the part lifecycle
• (23:13) Automation everywhere, and what physical AI actually means
• (27:14) The human body metaphor: sensors, feedback loops, and real-time decisions
• (31:52) The real challenge isn't robots, it's the data and its semantics
• (33:40) ProShop's machine monitoring: what people say vs what machines say
• (37:52) Reach true high end machining with DN Solutions
• (39:03) The two dangerous extremes: blindly trusting AI vs writing it off
• (40:48) Managing by exception: AI flags the few jobs that need you
• (42:44) Reflexive factories and capturing shop floor knowledge for AI
• (47:35) Inside the ETC: making and flying drones live with Oak Ridge National Lab
• (53:50) Register at IMTS.com and find us live in the Hennig booth (339133)

• Hennig Workflow Automation System
• DN Solutions
• Register for IMTS 2026 (September 14-19, Chicago)

• Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn
• AMT, The Association for Manufacturing Technology
• IMTS

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

Getting laid off twice early in your career could make you crave stability. It did the opposite for Brian Balthasar. After two rounds of corporate layoffs, he decided that starting his own machine shop was the safer bet.

This is another one of our Gen CNC conversations. Brian founded Balthasar Industries in 2022, and he just bought his first building in North Tonawanda, New York. We walk through the leap: buying a mill and a lathe before he had customers, learning that the sales cycle can run a year or more, and finding out how fast the costs that have nothing to do with machines pile up.

Some of the most useful parts are about money. The SBA 7(a) loan that got him started, the tooling and support gear that blew past every budget, and why his original business plan turned out to be 10 to 20 percent right. We add the rule every shop owner learns eventually: plan on it costing twice as much and taking twice as long, then pressure test that plan against the worst case.

We also get into growing past a one person shop, standardizing on DN Solutions, and building a tech stack in the right order, with connectivity first. Brian shares the CAM path that let him run a shop knowing only basic G code, and where he wants to take the business next, from complex turning and mill turn work to the optics, aerospace, and defense jobs around Buffalo.

Underneath all of it is an idea we keep circling back to. Growth is a calculated risk. You run the numbers, decide how much risk you can live with, and then, as Brian puts it, burn the boats and go. There's also a DN Solutions machine giveaway coming at IMTS this year, and you can sign up at makingchips.com/giveaway.

• (1:57) Learn more about Brian Balthasar and his journey in manufacturing
• (4:56) Why starting a shop felt less risky than another corporate job
• (6:22) Take your shop high-end with DN Solutions
• (7:35) Buying machines, hunting for customers, and learning sales
• (10:41) The startup costs nobody budgets for
• (15:04) Plan on twice as long and twice as much, then pressure test it
• (16:11) Boost spindle uptime with the Hennig workflow automation system
• (17:03) Buying the building and adding a third machine
• (18:33) Financing gear and getting a line of credit before you need it
• (21:09) Win a DN Solutions SVM 4100 at IMTS 2026
• (22:37) The SAE effect and the community that shapes young founders
• (26:19) Growing past a one person shop and protecting your balance
• (27:48) Invest in yourself first with ProShop ERP
• (29:24) Building the tech stack in the right order, connectivity first
• (34:19) The CAM journey and running a shop on basic G code
• (36:06) Where the equipment is headed and a wild GM grinder story
• (39:34) Positioning for optics, aerospace, defense, and AS9100
• (44:36) Closing advice: decide your risk threshold and burn the boats

• DN Solutions
• Hennig Workflow Automation
• ProShop ERP
• IMTS
• Bryce Barnes: The Tech Stack Advantage

• Balthasar Industries
• Balthasar Industries on LinkedIn
• On Instagram
• On Facebook
• Email

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

Most machine shops judge a good day by spindle time. If the machines are cutting, we're making money. If they're sitting still, something must be wrong.

But what if keeping capacity open for the right customer is actually part of the product?

That question kicks off our conversation with strategist Kaihan Krippendorff, who we met at MFG 2026 in Fort Lauderdale. Kaihan's big idea is that value is moving closer to the moment and place where it is needed. For machine shops, that means reshoring, faster turnaround, stocked material, flexible capacity, automation, and being the supplier customers call when a problem cannot wait.

We talk about why customers are rarely just buying a part. They are buying uptime, speed, confidence, and the ability to avoid a production nightmare. That shift changes how a shop should think about pricing, customer relationships, and where it can create value beyond the machine.

We also get practical about what this could look like on the shop floor: having material ready, showing available capacity online, and recognizing when a $200 part becomes a $2,000 solution because the customer needs it immediately.

The future may not belong to the biggest shop or the cheapest shop. It may belong to the shops that understand urgency, move quickly, and become harder for customers to replace.

Because it is not the big that eat the small.

It is the fast that eat the slow.

• (1:06) Recapping MFG 2026 and welcoming Kaihan Krippendorff
• (2:02) Kaihan's two worlds: strategy thought leadership and the Outthinker think tank
• (4:02) The game is changing, and proximity is the new playbook
• (5:15) Reshoring, the end of globalization, and the rising cost of distance
• (6:39) Take your shop high-end with DN Solutions
• (7:52) "Jobs to be done": sell the outcome, not the part
• (11:21) Storch Magnetics: one lobbyist out-sold the whole sales team
• (12:26) Tooling vending machines and the $8 stadium water bottle
• (14:06) The weekend rush job: a $200 part worth $2,000 by Monday
• (15:52) Distributed 3D printing, zero marginal cost, and selling uptime
• (18:32) A 2026 prediction: AI gets arms and legs
• (21:04) Reinvest in yourself first with ProShop ERP
• (22:43) Coca-Cola Freestyle: create the value after demand shows up
• (24:57) Low Country Aerospace and buying raw material smarter
• (27:25) Sell results, not atoms: the Uber and Domino's lesson
• (29:04) Putting open capacity online and a distributed network of shops
• (32:08) Connecting directly to customers and ProCNC's 2004 head start
• (35:36) Why categories are powerful and time splicing for quick response
• (37:15) Stop getting burned by recruiters: Use Hire MFG Leaders
• (38:29) Segmenting customers by who values speed most
• (42:09) Riches in the niches and the rise of the mega factories
• (44:48) What a typical shop can do now: the nine Ps checklist

• DN Solutions
• ProShop ERP
• Hire MFG Leaders
• SendCutSend
• Arbill
• Storch Magnetics
• Quickparts 3D Printing
• Low Country Aerospace
• The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
• Fast Formulator

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Kaihan.net
• Outthinker
• Proximity by Kaihan Krippendorff

• Website: www.MakingChips.com
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Everybody in manufacturing knows the skills gap is real. Far fewer people are doing anything about it. That tension runs through this entire conversation, and it's why we're glad to have Kyra Tillman back on the show as part of our workforce development series.

Kyra runs BTM Industries, a small job shop in Woodstock, Illinois, and she's a driving force behind the Manufacturing Pathways Consortium, a group of more than a hundred McHenry County manufacturers, every local high school, and dozens of community partners who decided to grow their own talent instead of fighting over the same shrinking pool.

The numbers back it up. This year 186 students applied for the summer internship program and 85 got placed, with grant funding covering 85 percent of their wages.

We get into the parts most people skip. How do you actually build an internship that works when your team is already slammed? Why do so many shops still say they don't have time for an inexperienced kid? And how did this group push back on a new Illinois foreign language requirement that would have gutted high school manufacturing programs, and win?

There's a bigger idea underneath all of it. The shortage isn't only a skills gap, it's an opportunity gap. Most students have no idea these careers exist, and the fix isn't complicated. Open your doors, bring kids in, and let them try the work. Whether you run a shop, sit on a school board, or just want to see your community thrive, this one's a blueprint you can copy.

• (0:00) Why workforce development gets its own series, and welcoming Kyra back
• (1:56) Kyra's path to owning BTM Industries, a third-generation Woodstock job shop
• (4:13) MPC: 100+ manufacturers, every local high school, one focus: the talent pipeline
• (5:59) Why it works: stop playing the victim and do something about it
• (8:48) Inside the summer internship program: 186 applied, only 85 placed
• (10:53) Building a real intern plan instead of winging it
• (15:16) It's a manufacturing experience, not a polished college internship
• (16:15) CLA: helping manufacturers find millions in savings and revenue
• (17:23) Nick's intern Peter and the value of learning what you don't want
• (20:00) Why this program is oversubscribed when others can't fill seats
• (22:40) The funding model: grants cover 85 percent of intern wages
• (25:16) Saving CTE programs from Illinois's new foreign language requirement
• (27:45) IMTS Job Shops Workshop and Networking Reception, September 15
• (28:39) Putting machined parts on guidance counselors' desks
• (32:46) Connecting with students who don't yet know what they like
• (35:00) It's an opportunity gap as much as a skills gap, so open your doors
• (36:42) Scaling means hiring beyond the shop floor, from coders to accountants
• (40:09) Why we love the quality of SMW Autoblok workholding
• (41:36) The results so far: 400+ interns, 46 now working in manufacturing
• (44:00) Help solve the problem: Let's get more manufacturers involved
• (47:15) How to replicate this: start with your local schools
• (49:30) Summer events, the Rockford party, and an IMTS kickoff

• Manufacturing Pathways Consortium
• CLA
• IMTS
• SMW Autoblok

• Manufacturing Pathways Consortium
• BTM Industries

• Website: https://www.MakingChips.com
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