Manufacturing Happy Hour

If you’re in the manufacturing industry or just an avid social media user, then you’ve probably come across Loupe and some of the amazing feats they’ve been pulling off. Loupe is a Portland, Oregon-based jack-of-all-trades automation outfit that’s responsible for some amazing unboxing videos and viral videos of their robotic dog Spot from Boston Dynamics. They are definitely a group that’s dialed into the art of social media for manufacturing.

With a mission as unique as revolutionizing the automation industry, and a desire to bring out-of-the-box thinking into the field, David Nichols, CEO and Co-Founder of Loupe, joins this episode to tell us a few things about the “economics of creativity.”

We hear Loupe’s origin story and how changing the name from Automation Resources Group to Loupe did wonders for their brand. David also takes us behind the scenes to where some of the magic happens ─ Loupe’s robot showroom, and explains why creativity, and not just operational thinking, belongs in the automation industry.

In this episode, find out:

• The mission of David’s website
• What Loupe does
• How David got into robotics and engineering
• How Loupe started
• Why they changed their name from Automation Resources Group to Loupe
• How the brand name Loupe has benefited the company
• Who Loupe builds robots for
• What the economics of creativity entails
• Why most companies don’t adopt the economics of creativity approach
• Why creativity should be part of the automation industry
• David’s insights into Loupe’s social media strategy and unconventional projects

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:

• “There should be clarity surrounding what a brand is about.”
• “You learn a whole lot by simply doing and experimenting.”
• “Sometimes when you do new things, it’s a hit and miss but other times it ends up unlocking tremendous value.”

Links & mentions:

• Loupe, a Portland Oregon based jack of all trades automation outfit
• Lardo, a sandwich shop that worships at the altar of bovine & swine

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.

Recently, we had an opportunity to attend an extremely unique manufacturing event in Columbus, NE. Columbus is a small, rural town and it's the exact type of spot where manufacturing events should be taking place.

Communities like this across the Great Plains, the Midwest, and the United States in general, are where manufacturing and manufacturing jobs can change people's lives.

This event was called Manufacturing Nebraska's Future, and it was all about showcasing the trends, opportunities, and technologies in manufacturing to leaders in the Nebraska manufacturing scene as well as to the community. Everyone from students to folks that work at the local manufacturing companies was present.

In this special live episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour, we chat with two leaders from the state of Nebraska: Scott Volk, COO of MetalQuest Unlimited, and Mike Johnson, COO at the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry. We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, including the role of the Chamber of Commerce and how to change the perception that Nebraska offers more than just agriculture. It’s a manufacturing powerhouse as well.

In this episode, find out:

• What it was like for Mike to move from brewing to the Chamber of Commerce
• How Scott combines his work at Metal Quest and the Chamber of Commerce
• Why Nebraska is more than an agricultural state
• What the Chamber of Commerce does for manufacturing
• The nuances of the workforce shortage in manufacturing
• Why the manufacturing industry needs some better PR
• How other players can contribute to the manufacturing ecosystem
• What other states can learn from the progress made in Nebraska
• Tips for picking the right beer

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 Chamber of Commerce is the engine to get things done, that’s just the simplest way of putting it.” - Scott Volk
• “What's happening in manufacturing now, and what's going to happen in manufacturing in the next ten years is a quick way to a comfortable life for anyone who's willing to work in the industry.” - Michael Johnson
• “There's strength in numbers, and the more you can coordinate, the more you're going to get done.” - Scott Volk

Links & mentions:

• Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry, a steadfast advocate for free enterprise, a competitive business climate, and state-wide economic growth through education, leadership development and government activism within the state of Nebraska
• MetalQuest Unlimited, manufacturer of precision machined component parts and assemblies in Hebron, NE

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.

Our guests this week are Kathy Miller and Shannon Karels.

Both of these women have racked up decades of experience in manufacturing and operations, and now they're the duo that leads OPSisters where they focus on advising operations through coaching, training, and speaking.

Beyond that, they've also distilled some of the best lessons in their book "Steel Toes and Stilettos," and we're going to be learning quite a bit from them today as well.

Tune in to this episode to hear the origin story behind this fantastic business duo, their thoughts on leadership, building connections, leading with empathy, and why they use the lean manufacturing concept in their work.

In this episode, find out:

• How Kathy and Shannon first met
• How they took the leap to quit their jobs and start a new business
• Advice for anyone looking to start a business with a business partner
• What a lean manufacturing roadmap looks like
• The soft skills you need to be a great leader
• Why you need to make the mission of the business meaningful
• How to avoid the grind of manufacturing
• Why you should lead with empathy
• How to find a work-life balance
• Kathy and Shannon reflect on their careers

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:

• “When I was given the autonomy to build a team I wanted with the best skills that I could find and people who brought diversity of thought to that team was when it was not a grind, it was when it was fun. We were all working toward a common mission.” – Shannon Karels
• “I think it's just important to know that there will be trade-offs, and you just have to do the best you can with the information that you have. When you're somewhere, be present there. Be thankful for where you are and don't spend a lot of energy on where you can't be.” – Kathy Miller
• “Know your strengths, use your strengths to help others, and bask in your authentic self. And if it's not a match with where you are, move on and don't look back.” – Kathy Miller

Links & mentions:

• OPSisters, operations leadership advising that includes coaching, training relationships, realities, and results
• Steel Toes and Stilettos, a true story of women manufacturing leaders and lean transformation success by Shannon Karels and Kathy Miller

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’re back for 5 more interviews with leaders in Robotics, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence. These conversations all took place in Pittsburgh at Cascadia Connect 2022 with investors, ecosystem leaders, high growth companies, and other movers and shakers in this industry. This was truly a unique event designed to bring all of these different players together, and Cascadia Capital deserves a big shoutout for bringing us all together.

Part 1 was largely focused on robotics clusters and academia, but here in Part 2, we're focused on two other very significant players in a tech ecosystem: investors and high growth companies.

This episode features the following guests in this order:

• Champ Suthipongchai, General Partner at Creative Ventures
• Jeremy Searock, Co-Founder & President at Advanced Construction Robotics
• George Holmes, PhD, CEO & Co-Founder of Hire Henry
• Aseem Datar, Partner at Madrona Venture Group
• Firdaus Pohowalla, Managing Director at Cascadia Capital

Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com/Connect2022 for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

Have you ever been in a room full of growth companies, investors, academics, entrepreneurs, and technologist all working together to advance the industry? It’s rare to get all of these players in a tech ecosystem together in one place, but that’s just what Cascadia Capital did at Cascadia Connect 2022 in Pittsburgh, PA.

With such a range of leaders in Robotics, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence across the industrial world, we had the opportunity to sit down with 10 of these individuals to hear their perspectives on the future of these technologies and their applications. We owe a big thanks to Cascadia Capital for bringing these amazing folks together.

In this first edition of this double feature, we’ll hear from the individuals leading “robotics clusters” in Silicon Valley, Boston, and Pittsburgh, as well as academics that have dedicated themselves to the advancement of robotics. Get ready to learn from the following five guests in Part 1 of this special feature:

• Andra Keay, Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics
• Fady Saad, Co-Founder of MassRobotics and General Partner at Cybernetix Ventures
• Joel Reed, Executive Direct of Pittsburgh Robotics Network
• Dr. Matthew Johnson-Roberson, Director of the Robotics Institute and Professor at Carnegie Mellon University
• Thomas Evans, Ph.D., Robotics Chief Technology Officer at Honeywell

Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com/Connect2022 for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

Welcome to another episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour recorded in front of a LIVE audience. A couple of months ago at IME West in Anaheim, we had a chance to sit down with Jerry Perez, FANUC America's Executive Director of Global Accounts. FANUC is one of the biggest names in industrial robotics in the world, so as you can probably guess, this is a very robot-centric conversation.

In this episode, Jerry shares some insights on the role of the global pandemic in creating that shift from automotive to non-automotive applications of robotics. He also highlights some out-of-the-box applications for robotics that FANUC has been cooking up behind the scenes.

Many in the industry are aware of the problems robotics is solving in the manufacturing industry. But it’s not just about how they fill the workforce gap. Jerry, Chris, and co-host Jake Hall of Manufacturing Millennial point out a few key areas that robotics is contributing positively to.

It’s not all business as usual though, we also chat about how robots are portrayed in Hollywood and pop culture as a whole.

In this episode, find out:

• Jerry tells us how to officially pronounce FANUC
• Jerry’s take on the largest driver of non-automotive applications on robotics
• How robotics can be applied in the food and hospitality industry
• How FANUC plans keep workers safe near robots
• When to use cobots
• What new opportunities are out there for robot applications
• Issues that robots address in the manufacturing industry
• Jerry, Jake, and Chris’ favorite pop culture robots
• How FANUC is involving the next generation in robotics
• One of the best conversations Jerry has had at IME West
• What manufacturing companies can do to attract younger generations

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:

• “As technology becomes more adoptable, the marketplace becomes more accepting of robots.”
• “If you're working around something that might poke or punch you, you want to be able to operate it safely. The industry has gone through safety standards to make this happen with Cobots.”
• “When you’ve got a lot of foot traffic, that’s the perfect spot for a Cobot.”

Links & mentions:

• FANUC America, global leader in industrial robotics

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.

Willemijn Schneyder and her team are changing the game for post-sales support. Willemijn is the CEO and proud Founder of SwipeGuide, a next-generation instruction software that provides an intuitive way to create enhanced-reality work instructions.

So how is this creating a revolution? Well, you're going to hear about that in this week’s show. Before venturing out into the world of entrepreneurship, Willemijn was in marketing, e-commerce, and, more recently, new product development. She was no stranger to matching organizations with technological solutions, and this paved the way for SwipeGuide.

In this episode, she gives a detailed overview of what SwipeGuide does and how it works. She also explains how it's tapping into the previously overlooked knowledge of frontline workers. Willemijn touches on the topic of diversity and bias in the workplace and discusses why she believes crowdsourced solutions like SwipeGuide are the future of manufacturing.

In this episode, find out:

• What SwipeGuide does
• Insights into Willemijn’s career before SwipeGuide
• How Willemijn’s background in retail and consultancy prepared her for entrepreneurship
• How SwipeGuide was founded
• How SwipeGuide evolved from a home user manual into an industrial manual
• A practical example of how SwipeGuide works
• The role of frontline workers in developing SwipeGuide’s scope
• How Willemijn leads a distributed team
• Willemijn’s take on inclusive leadership and tackling unconscious bias
• What lies in the future for SwipeGuide

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:

• “Though frontline workers aren’t the ones that buy from us, they embrace us — so we serve them so they can adopt the solution, create the content and get the results.”
• “There's much more recognition of the expertise that frontline workers have in the industry and the vital importance of their skill sets than ever before.”
• “A lot of what’s wrong with technologies today is they’ve been built by teams that aren’t diverse.”

Links & mentions:

• SwipeGuide, a collaborative, cloud-based work instruction platform that captures frontline knowledge to shape and enhance work processes in minutes
• Lagunitas Case Study, a video featuring how one of Heineken’s largest brands is leveraging SwipeGuide
• In Den Uiver, a whiskey bar in Haarlem, Netherlands

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.

Scot Lindemann has seen a thing or two when it comes to robotics. The guy has over 30 years of engineering and leadership in this space, from his long tenure with JR Automation to where he is now as the CEO of Mission Design and Automation, a Western Michigan-based robotics integrator and automation company. It's only appropriate that he take us through the world of robotics, "then and now," in today's episode.

Today, Scot shares his story and what it was like formally entering the field of robotics back in the 80s. We discuss how he's seen technology and the industry evolve, and some of the things that he feels are still the same. We talk about how automation impacts more than just the bottom line of the balance sheet and how small- and mid-sized players can leverage the power of automation today. Finally, we wrap up with some of Scot’s tips for attending trade shows.

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

Rachele Focardi is a generational diversity expert, international speaker, author, and Founder of XYZ at Work. We've talked about attracting the next generation to the workforce on this show quite a bit, but today is probably our most holistic conversation to date when it comes to all of the generations in the workforce and the wonderful things each generation brings to the table.

In this episode, Rachele explains why generational diversity is such a key issue across industries and how it has a unique place in the manufacturing industry. She explores how the pandemic leveled the playing field for each generation and spurred collaboration in and out of the workplace.

For the stats fans out there, Rachele offers some pretty juicy stats on this phenomenon. She also gives us a sneak peek at a few of the topics she’s going to discuss at the upcoming Automate Show in Detroit (without giving too much away).

In this episode, find out:

• What a Future of Work Strategist does
• Insights from Rachele’s educational and career background
• What inspired Rachele to focus on generational diversity
• Why generational diversity is so vital in the present-day
• What each generation brings to the table
• Why people perceive multigenerational collaboration negatively
• The role of the pandemic in opening people’s minds to generational diversity
• Rachele’s take on diversity in the manufacturing industry
• What Gen X brings to the table

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'm confident that if we jump on generational collaboration while it's hot, people will work together to create a reality where generations make decisions and run the world together.”
• “Hiring people and then losing them because your environment is not multi-generationally harmonious is a reality employers have to deal with.”
• “Though generational diversity is diversity, it does make us stronger.”

Links & mentions:

• XYZ at Work, a service that helps organizations foster a culture of cross-generational collaboration and understanding to drive employee engagement

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.

Are you ready for 2022's biggest automation event in North America? Automate 2022 is right around the corner.

Hosted by A3 - The Association for Advancing Automation - Automate is bringing together over 500 exhibitors and thousands of attendees for the ultimate networking, education, and technology event. The event takes place in Detroit, MI June 6-9 and you can register for FREE at https://manufacturinghappyhour.com/Automate2022.

In this preview episode, Alex Shikany - A3's VP of Membership & Business Intelligence - jumps on the show to share what to expect from Automate 2022. From keynote speakers to the first ever Automate LIVE - a first of its kind Game Day-style showcase - this episode should give you all the reason you need to head to Detroit. Plus, The Manufacturing Millennial Jake Hall joins us as a special co-host for this episode. We hope to #SeeYouInDetroit.