Written by Rick Byard
As a maker, a crafter, and a tinkerer, I LOVE manufacturing. My career started on the shop floor, running CNC machines for ProCNC, the machine shop that was the breeding ground for ProShop’s all-in-one digital manufacturing ecosystem. Most importantly, these early experiences taught me many skills that ProShop Academy customer training would demonstrate.
After learning the ropes of machining, inspecting, and aerospace, I found my way into the office as an estimator and planner. My focus shifted from producing parts to managing projects, winning new business, and solving problems for our customers. I spent years working among the most experienced and knowledgeable minds in the industry. As I developed my skillset, I strived to one day become just as talented as the people I admired.
When I moved away from Bellingham, Washington, I joined a new machine shop. This is where I really cut my teeth in manufacturing. I worked closely with clients to optimize their products, introducing automations and streamlining processes. This chapter of my life was extremely challenging, but it helped me see my passion for continuous learning and development.
Why have we developed ProShop Academy customer training?
When I joined ProShop in 2022, I wanted to help other shops reach new levels of success. ProShop enables companies to operate at peak efficiency, allowing them to focus their energy on solving deeply complex manufacturing challenges. I was all in.
I applied my decade-long experiences, using those skills to help more shops successfully implement ProShop in their businesses. As an implementation specialist, I hit the ground running, working with as many shops as I could.
Fast forward a couple years later, ProShop was busting at the seams (and still is!). However, we needed a way to scale our customer education efforts to broaden our impact on the market. We needed on-demand training resources that were fully accessible anywhere, anytime.
This need launched our plans for ProShop Academy customer training. It began as a series of training videos, teaching our clients the ins and outs of ProShop. ProShop Academy’s defining purpose was to help every user become experts in their roles.
What Does ProShop Academy Cover?
Towards the end of 2023, I took on the challenge of building ProShop Academy customer training into a viable educational resource. My goal was to build something that was more than just another knowledgebase, a series of self-serve help articles. Instead, we built a fully self-serve platform that guides clients to maximize the potential impact and optimize their effective use of ProShop.
Our team dedicated an entire calendar year to build the training programs, as well as internal processes to optimize the workshops. We sought to empower hundreds of machine shops and thousands of individuals to achieve their business goals with ProShop.
Was it too ambitious to shape the transformation of the whole manufacturing industry? Maybe, but that wasn’t going to stop us from trying. That core purpose is behind everything that we do at ProShop. We don’t lower those standards with ProShop Academy customer training, or with any of our educational efforts.
In October of 2024, BETA testing of ProShop Academy was finally underway. We started with a handful of clients and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. It was decided to make ProShop Academy available to every client from there on out.
We also decided to expand our on-demand training to include live, instructor-led workshops. Here, clients speak directly to our team of Implementation Specialists and dive deeper into the subjects they were learning about through the Academy. The full list of workshops can be viewed on our detailed ProShop Academy and customer forums webpage.
As a result, new clients were implemented in record time. They trained their teams to hit the ground running, discovering features and capabilities they weren’t aware of before ProShop Academy. The impact was immediate and the results speak for themselves.
Impact on manufacturing process management
To date, we’ve delivered over 7,000 hours of on-demand training. Additionally, we’ve hosted dozens of live and in-person workshops for our incredible clients. Each client now has the skills and the tools they need to scale their respective manufacturing businesses.
This number is increasing exponentially as our client base expands. Personally, I couldn’t be more proud of the impact we’ve had on the community.
Moreover, the self-serve nature of our training content has made huge strides for our internal implementation specialists. Thanks to ProShop Academy customer training, implementation focuses more on areas where their value truly shines.
Clients have the workshops to discover where to click and how to complete basic workflows in ProShop. Our incredible team of experienced industry leaders leverage their expertise to take clients to the next level. Since they can focus on the big picture, they share industry best practices, and pull from personal experiences to help clients solve real-world challenges.
The success of our instructor-led workshops has helped countless clients achieve key business objectives. Most importantly, they’ve seen record increases in their throughput, implemented leaner team workflows, and driven record high profits.
Conclusion
ProShop Academy is built by machinists, for machinists, and we’re just getting started. Our passion to help our clients and our industry has only grown as our business expands.
We have an amazing tool that we can use to springboard our clients to success. Since the launch of ProShop Academy, we have gained an incredible amount of knowledge about customer education. While there’s always room to improve, and we realize we have a lot more work to do, we’re incredibly proud of our progress to date.
In Q3 2025, we established an official Customer Education Strategy. This means we’re in the thick of building the next wave of content for ProShop Academy. Subsequently, we’re directly focused on helping our clients accomplish their business objectives.
ProShop is a knowledgeable and resourceful partner for every one of our clients. Our goal is to help you thrive. After all, if you win, we win, so let’s win together!
If you haven’t already, now is your chance to sign up for ProShop Academy customer training and access the sharpest minds in the industry. Get your team signed up today and let’s talk about how we can help you drive real, measurable results within your business.
It’s been a pleasure and an honor working with all of you. Now, it’s time for me to get back to work so we can keep the momentum going. I’ll see you in the Academy!!