Manufacturing Happy Hour

There’s a good chance you already have a tool from the Stanley Black & Decker family in your toolkit. They’re household names, quality, reliable tools, and we wanted to hear more about the manufacturing process behind them.

Antonio Hill, Head of Manufacturing Digital Solutions, Global Supply Chain at Stanley Black & Decker, joins Manufacturing Happy Hour to talk about his career, the challenges of managing supply chains, the impact of Industry 4.0, and what lean manufacturing means to him.

We hear how Antonio made the jump from HR to manufacturing (bringing some important skills with him) and how he’s grown in his career since. We hear some top advice on starting with a lean process, building a “culture of lean,” and managing supply chain issues now and in the future. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, so you won’t want to miss it!

In this episode, find out:

• How Antonio made the jump from HR to manufacturing
• What lean manufacturing is
• How Industry 4.0 affects Antonio’s work
• Why data is the key to building more efficient processes
• Why you need a “culture of lean” in manufacturing
• Why you need to know your facility inside-out
• The challenges of managing supply chains (especially in a pandemic)
• The coolest thing about working at Stanley Black & Decker

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!

Tweetable Quotes:

• “No one can predict the future, so in order for us not to go and try to hire Nostradamus, let's go ahead and create processes where we're getting the right information in order to make the best decision for our organization.”
• “We're always trying to improve the marginal cost and reduce costs to improve our business. We want our business to be the best.”
• “I think that a lot of times people get laser-focused on what they're on and not necessarily take the holistic approach.”

Links & mentions:

• AMS Summit, learn from manufacturing leaders about the most impactful trends in manufacturing – from workforce development to lean & OpEx – talking place October 11-12 in Houston, TX
• Stanley Black & Decker, manufacturer of iconic tools from household names such as BLACK+DECKER, DEWALT, CRAFTSMAN, STANLEY, and more

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

“A platform for communities to invest in their best and brightest” …that’s how this week’s guest describes the company he works for. Sounds great, right?

We invited Cole Shearer, Vice President – Skills Accelerator at gener8tor, to join Manufacturing Happy Hour this week. In this episode, he outlines his career to date, what he does at gener8tor, and provides some top tips for startup founders.

Cole explains the struggles of the talent shortage in the cybersecurity space and breaks down how the gener8tor program helps job seekers find work. We hear a little about how gener8tor has evolved since Cole joined the team, and he also describes what his ideal organization to work with would look like.

In this episode, find out:

• All about Cole’s early career
• Why startup founders should take risks
• How gener8tor helps jobseekers into work
• How gener8tor’s skills accelerator program works
• Why gener8tor teamed up on a Microsoft initiative
• How gener8tor has changed in recent years
• Why there’s a growing need for cybersecurity talent

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!

Tweetable Quotes:

• “If someone wants to make a change in their career and they have the aptitude and willingness to go through a program, they’re probably fit for ours.”
• “There are hundreds of thousands of open cybersecurity roles right now across the country. And the amount of actual potential talent to fill those positions is very limited.”
• “Our cybersecurity program is set up as a 10-week program that will be able to support participants and make sure that they're able to take the next stage of their career.”

Links & mentions:

• gener8tor, an accelerator platform that offers over 75 programs such as startup and skills accelerators, fellowships and conferences to startup founders, corporations and job seekers.
• Bar 18, Indianapolis

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

We haven’t covered imaging and vision much on Manufacturing Happy Hour, so we thought it was time that changed.

This week, we are talking to Greg Hollows, Vice President, Product Strategy at Edmund Optics, who discusses his various roles at Edmund Optics, where he has worked for over two decades. He also looks at the ways imaging has changed since he got started and provides some unmissable advice on succeeding in the industry.

Greg gives us so much food for thought in this episode. It’s one you don’t want to miss!

Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

In this episode, find out:

• What an optics company does
• About Greg’s career from the start
• Why Greg pursued imaging as a career
• What imaging was like when Greg got started
• The role imaging plays in automation today
• What applications and industries are primed for vision solutions
• If it can work for both small and large companies
• How Greg makes career decisions
• Greg’s most challenging work situations
• Top tips from Greg on succeeding in imaging and vision

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!

Tweetable Quotes:

• “What we do here at Edmund is changing the world.”
• “Imaging is just like a portfolio when you’re doing investment. You have risky things, you have stable things.”
• “You need to be connected to the industry. You need to understand the customer’s applications and you need to understand where things are going.”

Links & mentions:

• Jackson Hole – a mountain resort overlooking the Grand Teton National Park in Teton County, Wyoming
• Edmund Optics – a global manufacturer and supplier of optics, imaging and photonics technology based in Barrington, NJ

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of robots and what they can bring to the manufacturing world here on Manufacturing Happy Hour.

So, we invited fellow robot enthusiast Nate Brazelle, VP of Sales and Marketing at KUKA, onto the show to share his predictions on robots in the future of the industry, where they fit in now, and why they could be the answer to the labor shortage.

Nate explains how he first took a step into the world of robotics and shares the challenges and realities of working with cobots. We hear about the different areas cobots excel in and how they can work alongside human workers. Nate also lets us in on KUKA’s future plans for industrial robots and how its operating system aims to make deploying robots even easier.

In this episode, find out:

• How Nate first got into robotics
• The top challenges in robotics
• The rise of cobots in manufacturing
• How cobots can help with additive manufacturing
• Why cobots could fill in the gaps of the talent shortage
• Why you should let your team make mistakes
• How to get comfortable with new tech
• Future plans for KUKA

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Skilled labor is still going away, and we can't find it. So we're thinking of applications like welding, which is great skilled labor, but it's just going away.”
• "I think the real big benefit of 3D printing is the value and benefit of the cobots and 3D printers in ARM tooling and the grippers. I think that's a really big value.”
• “I think in the next couple of years, if we focus and look at the areas where we simply can't find the skilled labor, that's going to be where the markets continue to grow.”

Links & mentions:

• KUKA, global robot and automation solutions company offering tailor-made solutions for your industry
• Buddy Guy’s Legends, a classic blues club with up-and-coming and famous acts plus New Orleans-style pub grub, located in Chicago, IL 

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

If you already thought that the 5-day work week was one day too long, then this episode will rock your boat. This week, we’re chatting with Joe Sanok, author of Thursday is the New Friday, and he offers a practical breakdown of how the 4-day work week would fit into a manufacturing setting.

Before we dive into all that, Joe tells us about his professional background and then offers a brief but detailed history of the 5-day work week (and a bit about the concept of time). We also hear a step-by-step breakdown of how to slow down in order to speed things up and ultimately get more done in four days as opposed to five.

Joe leaves us with a whole lot to mull over as far as productivity is concerned. So this is definitely one of those episodes you’re going to want to tune in to.

In this episode, find out:

• What Joe’s book, “Thursday is the New Friday” is about
• Joe’s relationship with the manufacturing industry growing up
• The motivation behind Joe’s career choices
• When Joe really started questioning the 5-day work week
• The history of the 5-day work week
• How people often react to the notion of the 4-day work week
• The first step to slowing down (to ultimately speeding up)
• How manufacturers can adjust to the 4-day work week
• How to test the 4-day work week
• Surprising things Joe learned while writing his book

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!

Tweetable Quotes:

• “The pandemic was the final linchpin in the 40-hour work week.”
• “You need to first gain clarity through slowing down so when you eventually speed up, you’re doing the right things instead of putting out fires.”
• “A lot of the realizations people get from slowing down are more personal than business-related.”

Links & mentions:

• Thursday is the New Friday, by Joe Sanok
• Practice of the Practice podcast, innovative ideas to start, grow, and scale a private practice
• JoeSanok.com
• Workshop Brewing, right on the water in Traverse City, MI

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list

of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

The worlds of robotics and automation have been picking up speed for some time now. But the pandemic has only fast-tracked the need for the next generation of talent to wield these tools.

Organizations such as Illuminate STEM are leading the way for young blood to gain knowledge and fly the flag for robotics for decades to come.

Terrence Southern, Founder, CEO & Executive Director at Illuminate STEM, joins this episode to explain how he taught budding robotics workers, how he started his company, and more.

Plus, Terrence outlines his predictions for the future of robotics and automation. He explains that, however excited younger generations are about robotics, the eagerness to get involved in the industry still has a long way to go.

In this episode, find out:

• How Terrence got started in robotics
• How he teaches students and helped a student who now works for one of world’s largest companies
• How Illuminate STEM first got started
• Why Terrence aims to make robotics a more viable career choice
• How the pandemic sped up our reliance on automation
• What Terrence thinks about the future of ‘cobots’
• Why, despite excitement around robotics, people don’t want to work in the industry
• The negative associations people have with robotics
• Terrence’s predictions for the future of robotics

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I see ‘cobots’ becoming more accessible and more widely used.”
• “There’s so much to look forward to in the robotics industry.”
• “I hate to say it, but the pandemic was the perfect storm to open the floodgates for automation.”

Links & mentions:

• Northland Roller Rink, Detroit’s largest, oldest, world-renowned skating rink

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

It’s not every day you get to record a podcast episode in Berlin, so when Florian Pestoni told me he’d be in Berlin at the same time as me, we had to meet up to record an interview.

In this special live episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour, we step out of the studio and into the beer garden to discuss what chronic care for robots looks like. Florian is the Co-Founder & CEO of InOrbit, a Silicon Valley-based startup that helps companies managing fleets of robots streamline their robotic operations. Florian shares his motivation behind his shift from software engineering to robotics, before diving into a discussion about #RobOps and examples of how InOrbit offers chronic care for robotic fleets.

Altogether, it’s an informative and - dare we say - unconventional episode packed with insights about the future of robotics, the startup scenes in Berlin, Silicon Valley, and beyond, and yes, the quirks of recording live podcast episodes in less-than-ideal conditions.

We're taking a break this week for summer vacation! Sort of. Actually, we have a bonus episode for you that's all about a summer vacation-esque topic: Industrial Tourism.

Until this week, I thought "industrial tourism" was a term I made up, but it turns out it's actually a well-documented practice. From brewery tours to visiting upcycled, decommissioned factories, industrial tourism actually covers a lot of ground.

In this episode, I share 3 examples of my own industrial tourism experiences from my recent travels. From Copenhagen to Pennsylvania, there are industrial sites with plenty of good reason to visit them far and wide.

Brennen Dugger is the President & Founder of Blue Collar Automation, specializing in industrial automation, controls integration, and robotics. Brennen and I recently met at A3's Automate conference when the robot at his booth served me a beer. Obviously, he was perfect for Manufacturing Happy Hour!

In this episode, Brennen explains the motivation behind his move from the factory floor to the office of a company founder. He also shares the reason why collaborative robots are practically front and center of operations at his company and why they play a huge role in the future of the workforce.

He brings things full circle by sharing some vital advice he received from James Dean, the Owner of Appalachian Automation, LLC, right before he started his company.

Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

In this episode, find out:

• Why Brennen picked engineering as a career path
• Why Blue Collar Automation was created
• The inspiration behind the name Blue Collar Automation
• Why collaborative robots are front and center at Blue Collar Automation
• Some of the common applications in collaborative robotics
• Brennen’s take on what’s next in the robotics space
• The most helpful piece of advice Brennen has received since he started his company
• Brennen shares some resources that have helped him in his career

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback

from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Collaborative robots have got really poor representation, but that depends because as soon as you put something dangerous on the end of a tool, it's no longer collaborative.”
• “There's enough work out there for everybody, and if you just try hard and put out good work, the work will come to you.”
• “I feel like it's riskier to not take risk than it is to stay in your safe, little bubble.”

Links & mentions:

• Blue Collar Automation, an industrial controlscompany specializing in collaborative and industrial robotics, located in Memphis, TN
• Superior Integration Solutions (Hayden Automation), specializing in mechanical work, located in St. Joseph, MI and run by Timothy Hayden
• MFCEO Project Podcast, hosted by entrepreneur Andy Frisella
• Wiseacre Brewing Co., evidently one of the best breweries in the country according to multiple guests on this podcast, located in Memphis, TN
• Make sure to connect with all of the industry all-stars that Brennen gave a shoutout to, including Timothy Hayden, James Dean, Ali G, Nikki Gonzales, and Rylan Pyciak

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

We’ve just hit our milestone episode! The big 100, so it makes perfect sense to mark the occasion with a special episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour.

While Manufacturing Happy Hour has been around for over 5 years, over the course of 75+ videos and over 130 episodes, we’re choosing to label this one Episode 100 (even if it is closer to 200 episodes at this point).

In this episode, we’ll recount 10 of the most memorable moments from the past 5 years, but they might not be the moments you expect. From live events to a few surprise moments, get ready for a beer-fueled Top 10 list that should get you excited for the next 100 episodes to come.

Hear everything from hilarious beer-related moments to some of the great connections that Chris has made along the way. He also takes us back to the show’s early days and sheds a little light on how far he’s come alongside his community.

Chris ties things up by giving some insight behind why he created Manufacturing Happy Hour in the first place and why he intends to stick to that with future episodes.

Here’s to another 100 episodes, cheers!

In this episode:

• Chris’ shoutout to the Manufacturing Happy Hour industry community
• How Chris created the show
• Chris talks about what he particularly appreciates from the show’s early days
• A few funny moments featured on the show
• The moment Chris realized the show’s reach went well beyond the Bay Area
• The realities of filming at live events
• How the show transitioned from Rockwell Automation-centric video series to a podcast
• Chris talks about the inspiration behind his first virtual Happy Hour
• How Manufacturing Happy Hour has helped Chris make new connections

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I love that I’ve been able to make connections on the show, but what I love more is the connections my listeners end up making.”
• “It’s been great seeing the power of a platform that had once been a humble Bay Area video show expand its reach in areas I didn’t necessarily have a huge community in.”
• “One major thing I’ve learned since I started recording live interviews and shows is that not everything goes according to plan, and you’ve got to roll with the punches.”

Links & mentions:

• Pandemic episode
• Pubcast Worldwide, Chris’ other podcast, focused on beer and beverages around the world
• Haymarket Brewing, and the location of the 2019 Automation Fair Pre-Party

Make Sure to Connect with all of These Manufacturing Leaders

• Steve Parkhill, Rockwell Automation
• Vinod Anandarajah, Kanavu Automation
• Michael “Sully” Sullivan, Miller Resource Group
• Danny Gonzales, IndustrialSage
• Thomas Schaefer, Softing
• Dan Voit, Blentech
• Tim Shope, Endress & Hauser
• Dave Griffith, The Manufacturing Hub
• Beth Parkinson, Rockwell Automation
• Ryan Wasmund, PCC Structurals, Inc
• Jake Hall, The Manufacturing Millennial
• Aaron Prather, FedEx
• Jeff Burnstein, A3 Association for Advancing Automation
• Alex Shikany, A3 Association for Advancing Automation
• Firdaus Pohowalla, Cascadia Capital

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode.

Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.