00:00:04:15 – 00:00:12:15
Unknown
Scott, welcome to the Manufacturing Transform podcast. I’m so glad to have you here.
00:00:12:17 – 00:01:06:08
Unknown
You bet. Sir, you know, I got to visit you in January of this year, which was really enlightening. You have some incredible machinery that I would never expect in this little town in Oklahoma. You’re just north of Tulsa advanced. Why don’t you tell the audience a little bit about the business?
00:01:14:20 – 00:01:56:18
Unknown
Finished parts. Yeah, sure.
00:02:09:00 – 00:02:12:23
Unknown
Oh! Whoa!
00:02:17:19 – 00:02:33:17
Unknown
All right.
00:03:01:05 – 00:03:06:18
Unknown
Yeah.
00:03:06:20 – 00:03:17:00
Unknown
Yeah.
00:03:17:02 – 00:03:34:12
Unknown
I got to meet him. He’s, He’s, Yeah, he’s a cool guy. So.
00:03:34:14 – 00:04:32:10
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. So, What? So. Yeah. What makes. Let’s just focus on the equipment. I just want you to share a little bit. I saw a lot of multi pallet systems, robot loaded stuff. Can you describe a little bit about the equipment you’re using there.
00:05:50:06 – 00:05:56:13
Unknown
Yeah, sure.
00:05:56:15 – 00:06:20:17
Unknown
And is that that’s even specifically for parts that don’t require simultaneous five axis machining. But just the ability to index and finish the whole part in 1 or 1 plus set ups. you found that to be really valuable.
00:06:20:19 – 00:06:39:09
Unknown
Yeah.
00:06:39:11 – 00:07:05:08
Unknown
Well.
00:07:05:10 – 00:07:24:18
Unknown
Yeah.
00:07:31:09 – 00:08:02:10
Unknown
Yes. It is. Yes it is. Well, I do want to talk a little more about people and finding them and training and onboarding and, but let’s, let’s get back to the, the time where you were, you’ve, you know, you’ve said you were running on, E2 an old version of E2 for, for many, many years. paint a picture of what the shop looked like at the time you were deciding and why you decided you needed to upgrade that system.
00:08:02:12 – 00:08:20:05
Unknown
And, yeah, but what initiated that?
00:08:44:03 – 00:09:03:15
Unknown
Yeah.
00:09:03:17 – 00:09:23:17
Unknown
Sure.
00:09:41:22 – 00:09:47:16
Unknown
Right. Yeah.
00:09:52:08 – 00:10:09:06
Unknown
Yeah.
00:10:14:12 – 00:10:26:02
Unknown
Yeah.
00:10:26:04 – 00:10:47:22
Unknown
Right.
00:11:11:22 – 00:11:37:06
Unknown
As you should.
00:12:08:13 – 00:12:34:01
Unknown
You said, a couple of things. Sounded like you maybe already had some inklings that you wanted some upgrades to your system. but it was that customer that really kind of push you over the edge like. And can you elaborate, can you share, like, what your on time delivery was for them or. You know, sometimes. Oh were you okay.
00:12:34:03 – 00:12:42:23
Unknown
So why did they why were they insisting then.
00:12:43:01 – 00:13:14:05
Unknown
I always, always set the bar higher. Got it. Okay.
00:13:14:19 – 00:13:15:12
Unknown
Wow.
00:13:46:16 – 00:14:15:13
Unknown
Yeah. So I know your pain due dates to get changed 5 or 6 times. And eventually back to the original date. That was on, you know. Or something close. Those, those. Yeah those. those automated MRP reports are the worst. They are the absolute worst. All right, so we talked about why you needed it. why you decided on pro shop.
00:14:15:15 – 00:14:52:23
Unknown
how long you’ve been using it? and. Yeah. So it sounds like you really, really ran the business on spreadsheets. There was a lot of data, you know, being housed in it, too. But the actual daily decisions and the. That was all just exports and and, lots of spreadsheets. Those are tough.
00:14:53:01 – 00:15:05:19
Unknown
I’ve heard that before.
00:15:05:21 – 00:15:20:09
Unknown
Very good. Sure. Absolutely.
00:15:20:11 – 00:15:28:11
Unknown
Absolutely.
00:15:32:10 – 00:15:40:06
Unknown
Right.
00:15:40:08 – 00:16:02:02
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Those can be hard. And it’s it’s not terribly common but it’s not uncommon that sometimes that’s, that’s the result. but thankfully more people than not realize that truly will benefit them personally and make their job easier and less stressful. And if they’re open to learning a different way, it can really be beneficial.
00:16:02:03 – 00:16:38:08
Unknown
And obviously for the for the company. I wanted to ask, before we move on about, you talked about, you know, old data particularly, you know, due dates. do you have any stories or any recollection of, something where it wasn’t just the due date, but it was like the drawing or something that was an old Rev that you made the wrong parts or you put the wrong feature in or, you know, that really was an expensive mistake because of a paper based system.
00:16:38:10 – 00:17:18:01
Unknown
Oh, I’m sorry.
00:17:27:07 – 00:17:34:04
Unknown
Right. Yeah.
00:17:34:06 – 00:17:47:07
Unknown
Right.
00:17:47:09 – 00:17:50:16
Unknown
Sure.
00:17:50:18 – 00:18:21:18
Unknown
Well, you need obviously, you need something that has traceability. Right? And, I was just at a, Yeah. I was just at a client last week in Denver, and they basically have a one page QR code, the work order number, the client name and a picture. That’s it. There’s no due dates, there’s no revs, there’s no, you know, anything that could, like the customer name is not going to change.
00:18:21:20 – 00:18:43:01
Unknown
The picture is probably not going to change. And that’s really just for reference. And the QR code just goes right to the work order. Right. So you and if you split a job, you can just print a second QR code and, goes right to, you know, just and they actually put they literally actually did put scanners on every workstation out there and they just click it.
00:18:43:01 – 00:19:05:21
Unknown
So they only have to type the four digit code. So it just clicks, brings it right up on the screen. And the other cool part does they they laser, they have a, a nice laser marking machine. And they also laser mark the QR code of the raw material right onto the surface of the material. So you can similarly scan the QR code on the material.
00:19:05:23 – 00:19:31:22
Unknown
Now they don’t do with every single piece, but when they have a big valuable chunk of metal, you know which I know you make some pretty valuable chunks of metal. yeah, QR code right on it. It’s amazing. Full traceability right to the line item, right to the cert. so anyway, for what that’s worth, and trying to get away from the actual first page of the work order, which does have information that can become obsolete, you know, and then cause confusion.
00:19:31:22 – 00:19:42:02
Unknown
So yeah. All right. Very good.
00:19:42:04 – 00:19:50:18
Unknown
Yeah.
00:19:50:20 – 00:20:01:23
Unknown
Right. Yeah.
00:20:02:01 – 00:20:24:06
Unknown
Right.
00:20:24:08 – 00:20:38:10
Unknown
Right.
00:20:49:15 – 00:21:12:18
Unknown
Yeah.
00:21:12:20 – 00:21:29:11
Unknown
Very long. Lead time. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:42:02 – 00:22:09:09
Unknown
Oh, really? Okay.
00:22:09:11 – 00:22:27:15
Unknown
Let’s. Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:27:17 – 00:22:31:04
Unknown
You knew the name.
00:22:31:06 – 00:22:49:01
Unknown
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, sure.
00:22:57:17 – 00:23:21:01
Unknown
With, with managing that type of thing historically with that. Just been lots of word docs and spreadsheets and things and file folders.
00:23:21:03 – 00:23:46:14
Unknown
Yeah. I’m laughing particularly.
00:23:46:16 – 00:23:57:14
Unknown
Yeah. It is fraught with some, fraught with some challenges for sure.
00:23:57:16 – 00:24:07:16
Unknown
Absolutely.
00:24:07:18 – 00:24:13:04
Unknown
Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
00:24:13:06 – 00:24:45:14
Unknown
Yeah. And that’s more rarified, you know, er, for a shop to be operating and there’s less competition. The requirements are very stringent and hard, but, there’s way fewer shops that can pull that off. So it’s a good place to hang out and, you know, niche niche down into.
00:24:45:16 – 00:24:52:14
Unknown
No. For sure.
00:24:52:16 – 00:25:15:00
Unknown
Right. Right.
00:25:24:02 – 00:25:30:17
Unknown
Right.
00:25:30:19 – 00:26:00:12
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. No. That’s so critical. It’s just the pace of things is speeding up and the demands are getting ever increasing. I was laughing particularly hard when you’re talking about revs and, you know, drafts and your shims in different places because we literally right before we jumped onto this call, we did a, a webinar with, cohosted with Modern Machine Shop magazine about 9 to 100.
00:26:00:15 – 00:26:31:21
Unknown
And, you know, the speed with which we’re able to help clients, you know, get certified. And, you know, one of the reasons we can go so quickly is because everything’s integrated and you don’t have that. Hey, do you have a draft of that procedure on your desktop? And I have one on mine. And, you know, and, it, it is such a reality in such a painful thing that so many shops deal with that, is at this point, you know, it’s unnecessary.
00:26:31:22 – 00:26:43:15
Unknown
Right. That’s, there’s so much, so many better ways, to do it. So,
00:26:43:17 – 00:27:17:11
Unknown
Yeah.
00:27:17:13 – 00:27:44:04
Unknown
That’s. That’s really well said. And that is a theme. And maybe we can just delve into that for a second. you know one of the things that we, we, we really profess is do a more thorough planning process up front. Yes, it will take incrementally more time, but, the, the, the benefits will far outweigh many, many, many times over the time investment you put in at the beginning.
00:27:44:05 – 00:28:03:23
Unknown
And, some, some companies, you know, like on demos, we’re like, yeah, this is how we do things. And they’re like, oh, no, that is way too much work. Like, I, I can barely get jobs out the door today. If you make me do extra work on the front end, I’m going to be extra late. So you’re raising your hand.
00:28:04:01 – 00:28:08:23
Unknown
You felt that way. You thought that way.
00:28:09:01 – 00:28:24:07
Unknown
Right.
00:28:24:09 – 00:28:35:05
Unknown
Yeah.
00:28:51:03 – 00:28:55:23
Unknown
Sure.
00:29:08:12 – 00:29:21:08
Unknown
Just as a community a real time communication tool. Yeah. That’s super smart I love that.
00:29:25:15 – 00:29:31:03
Unknown
Right.
00:29:38:16 – 00:29:54:03
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah yeah. The pressure is real for sure.
00:29:54:05 – 00:30:11:22
Unknown
Okay.
00:30:11:23 – 00:30:43:04
Unknown
Yeah.
00:31:11:05 – 00:31:49:18
Unknown
So that. That’s music to my ears. Just, That’s it. I love, yeah, I love and, you know, kudos to you for, I guess, having the the insight at the beginning of the training process to kind of put a hold on some of your team that were saying, oh, we got to make it work, just like you two worked, and we need to export spreadsheets and do, because that’s what we’re normally like, is that you didn’t say that specifically, but I’m imagining that’s those the some of the conversations that were happening and, and like to be honest, you know, we have we have clients that that still try to do that.
00:31:49:22 – 00:32:15:15
Unknown
And, the beginning of their training is much more rocky when they insist they must make it work, like their whole system. And, you know, most of them end up seeing the light and like, an end or and not only did they do that with like, all right, show me how this works. Then sometimes they go to like immediately trying to customize the system to make it work, like their old system.
00:32:15:15 – 00:32:35:12
Unknown
And they’re like, we’re going to hijack this field and we’re going to do this thing. And, you know, it’s like, please, just hold on a second. Like, understand the big picture before you go. Some customization might be totally relevant, right? But a lot of times it’s not because like you said, we came from the shop floor. We we’ve run this type of business.
00:32:35:12 – 00:33:02:00
Unknown
We don’t you know, we’re not trying to sell it to food processors. We’re not trying to sell it to distributors. We’re selling it to people doing complex precision manufacturing and regulated industries. And there’s some, you know, method to the madness. some logic behind the way we designed it. And, if you just a little humble about it, a little open to thinking new ways, it’s can be pretty remarkable.
00:33:02:02 – 00:33:12:19
Unknown
it’s, sounds like you’ve, you know, had the foresight to think that way, too. So thank you.
00:33:12:21 – 00:33:23:23
Unknown
Right.
00:33:39:18 – 00:33:54:18
Unknown
Okay.
00:33:54:20 – 00:34:13:01
Unknown
Sure, sure.
00:34:20:16 – 00:34:24:17
Unknown
Yeah.
00:34:24:19 – 00:34:37:17
Unknown
Yeah.
00:34:41:15 – 00:34:51:16
Unknown
Right.
00:35:40:07 – 00:36:09:06
Unknown
Yeah. Well, it sounds like it was also probably helpful, the fact that you have been doing lean for, you know, almost 20 years, and you have that continuous continuous improvement mindset probably built right into everyone’s, you know, way of thinking.
00:36:22:03 – 00:36:34:08
Unknown
Sure.
00:37:14:03 – 00:37:34:13
Unknown
Yeah. Absolutely.
00:37:45:15 – 00:37:58:10
Unknown
Oh, nice.
00:37:58:12 – 00:38:07:00
Unknown
I love it.
00:38:07:01 – 00:38:28:09
Unknown
Right. Cooking up different bubbles. Yeah.
00:38:32:13 – 00:38:44:00
Unknown
Right. Yeah. Right.
00:38:44:02 – 00:39:07:13
Unknown
Yeah.
00:39:23:05 – 00:39:54:18
Unknown
Yeah. It’s funny. Use that term because that’s one of my questions. Many clients describe it as the backbone. Now you before we hit record, you were saying you used to run three panels because you had three different business entities, and you’re now consolidating that all into pro shop and one, one set of books. That’s in and of itself a big, big, big project.
00:39:59:16 – 00:40:21:05
Unknown
Right.
00:40:21:07 – 00:40:33:18
Unknown
The wonderful. So that’s. Yeah.
00:40:33:20 – 00:40:39:06
Unknown
Well.
00:40:44:20 – 00:41:22:11
Unknown
Well. Yeah. sometimes we talked about culture a little bit just around the edges. Sometimes clients describe pro shop having a pretty profound change on their culture in terms of accountability and the way people, you know, think about Contributing into the system, contributing their knowledge, contributing, democratizing, if you use that term, you know, the data and, and, the information to make it, you know, one set that everyone is contributing to.
00:41:22:13 – 00:42:10:12
Unknown
and sometimes also just the, the daily chaos, of lost travelers or mistakes because you were working off old information or just pages of late orders. really has a profound effect on, you know, the mood of the the shop when it’s so stressful. Have you would you say that you’ve seen any changes in the way people interact, the culture, the anything around that sort of softer side of things?
00:42:10:14 – 00:42:22:03
Unknown
Okay.
00:42:35:00 – 00:42:47:06
Unknown
Right.
00:42:47:08 – 00:43:11:01
Unknown
You mean in the old spreadsheet days and the old spreadsheet days? Kind of. Yeah. Right.
00:43:19:04 – 00:43:36:04
Unknown
So customizing the pre-processing to those four workflows. Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:36:06 – 00:43:45:06
Unknown
Okay. Sure. Right.
00:43:45:08 – 00:43:49:22
Unknown
Oh, sure. Yeah.
00:43:50:00 – 00:43:55:08
Unknown
Right.
00:43:55:10 – 00:44:07:10
Unknown
Yeah.
00:44:07:12 – 00:44:11:11
Unknown
Yeah.
00:44:11:12 – 00:44:18:12
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:18:14 – 00:44:31:06
Unknown
Part and little skim.
00:44:31:07 – 00:44:40:12
Unknown
Got it.
00:44:40:14 – 00:44:51:11
Unknown
Yeah.
00:44:51:12 – 00:44:57:17
Unknown
Sure.
00:44:57:19 – 00:45:21:11
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, I’m glad the model viewer is going to be helpful to, the next version coming out in the next few weeks. We’ll have even more functionality. And ultimately, that’ll be integrated right into, you know, I can’t disclose too much, but right into the work order screen, along with pictures, you know, like a carousel type of things.
00:45:21:11 – 00:45:48:16
Unknown
So with, yeah, more measurements and other things like that. So it’s going to be fun to add. Meaning.
00:45:55:10 – 00:46:04:01
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:18:15 – 00:46:35:08
Unknown
Yeah.
00:46:35:10 – 00:46:42:18
Unknown
Yes. It does.
00:46:42:20 – 00:46:55:15
Unknown
Yeah. And where am I? I think a machinist shirt today. Thank you. I’ve seen his. Wouldn’t have anything if not for them. So.
00:47:36:00 – 00:48:03:03
Unknown
Amazing. Yeah.
00:48:17:15 – 00:48:34:23
Unknown
Yeah. Well.
00:48:35:01 – 00:49:01:06
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah I yeah. You know I’m a believer in raw materials to finish goods. That’s where the value gets created. You know that’s through through you know, through labor and machinery and smarts and systems.
00:49:18:16 – 00:49:28:14
Unknown
Yeah.
00:49:28:15 – 00:49:43:06
Unknown
Yeah.
00:49:43:08 – 00:49:58:05
Unknown
Yeah.
00:50:11:08 – 00:50:15:20
Unknown
What.
00:50:15:22 – 00:50:30:22
Unknown
Wo can’t even comprehend how that’ll work. That’s pretty cool.
00:50:31:00 – 00:50:39:07
Unknown
What? It’s. It’s just free spinning. Just free spinning on Ann Arbor.
00:50:39:09 – 00:50:51:16
Unknown
Holy smokes. Wow. I learned something new today, that’s for sure.
00:50:51:18 – 00:51:01:01
Unknown
Right. Sure.
00:51:06:05 – 00:51:23:05
Unknown
Yeah, sure. Are you. Are you yet using process development? Yeah. Oh, nice.
00:51:23:07 – 00:51:32:12
Unknown
Right.
00:51:32:14 – 00:51:54:14
Unknown
Right.
00:52:00:10 – 00:52:05:02
Unknown
Of course. Absolutely.
00:52:05:04 – 00:52:15:22
Unknown
Yeah.
00:52:16:00 – 00:52:47:16
Unknown
Yeah. That’s. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That’s. That’s what I was getting to with, sort of democratizing information because those machines, those technicians, those operators, they have really valuable knowledge that needs to be incorporated into the process and, develop it. You know, that’s where that name came from. Process development. again, that continuous improvement mindset.
00:52:47:18 – 00:53:00:10
Unknown
It’s. Right.
00:53:00:12 – 00:53:08:16
Unknown
100%.
00:53:12:16 – 00:53:23:05
Unknown
Yeah.
00:53:30:15 – 00:54:04:19
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. And that’s going to benefit everyone. The whole company. So you you mentioned earlier and I said I wanted to come back to hiring and yeah, hiring and recruiting and and that, that, that knowledge have we’ve, I’ve heard recently some stories of really impressive results of people bringing on less experienced or completely inexperienced people and then plug them into for an A pro shop.
00:54:04:20 – 00:54:35:09
Unknown
It’s like, here’s the way you run this process. There’s pictures there, step by step instructions. You know, train them a little bit for a few hours maybe, and then they’re just off and running and they can refer back. Have you done enough documentation and parts on anything that you can bring someone inexperienced and just kind of show them the ropes and let them successfully execute it?
00:54:35:11 – 00:54:50:00
Unknown
Oh, nice. Good.
00:54:50:02 – 00:55:09:20
Unknown
Right.
00:55:09:22 – 00:55:24:21
Unknown
Yeah.
00:55:24:23 – 00:55:34:12
Unknown
Sure. Yeah.
00:55:34:14 – 00:55:48:03
Unknown
And I think that’s a minimum you’d want for anyone working in a machine shop to read and follow instructions.
00:55:48:05 – 00:55:59:00
Unknown
Right.
00:55:59:02 – 00:56:04:01
Unknown
That’s right.
00:56:04:03 – 00:56:22:12
Unknown
Sure. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:22:14 – 00:56:45:09
Unknown
Yeah. so I want to kind of wrap up on a topic that may be of high importance to you. not sure yet. but, cyber security and specifically CMC, are you are your customers breathing down your neck about it yet?
00:56:45:11 – 00:56:51:15
Unknown
And is.
00:56:51:17 – 00:57:10:19
Unknown
The rule. Yeah. Rule of law. Yeah, yeah.
00:57:14:16 – 00:57:23:04
Unknown
Yeah.
00:57:29:08 – 00:57:48:01
Unknown
Yeah.
00:57:48:03 – 00:58:08:14
Unknown
It’s it. Have you turned on any of the functions like two factor authentication or you know. Yeah.
00:58:08:16 – 00:58:16:01
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:58:16:02 – 00:58:21:07
Unknown
And is pro shop safe on your radar?
00:58:21:09 – 00:58:34:02
Unknown
Pro shop safe. The product savvy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, you know.
00:58:34:03 – 00:58:39:21
Unknown
Right.
00:58:39:23 – 00:58:49:21
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. Just us to.
00:58:49:23 – 00:59:13:07
Unknown
You and me both. Yes, yes. That is, on. it is in our our very near term roadmap. we are accelerating the pace of. Yeah.
00:59:13:09 – 00:59:38:00
Unknown
I love it. I guess last couple of questions. obviously you’re still, you know, you’re still somewhat. I don’t know if you still have a few to work orders that are trickling out. no, those are all gone. But you’re still in the still in the, you know, learning process. Maybe the firehose isn’t quite coming at you as fast as it once was, but,
00:59:38:02 – 01:00:01:14
Unknown
I like to sometimes ask the question, you know, imagining what your shop would look like right now if you were still on your old system, doing old things, you know, the way that you did before. Can you imagine what that would be like?
01:00:39:12 – 01:00:48:14
Unknown
And you would equip. Or you would, You.
01:00:48:16 – 01:01:01:23
Unknown
Sure, sure.
01:01:16:04 – 01:01:23:19
Unknown
Right.
01:01:41:01 – 01:01:53:00
Unknown
Right.
01:01:53:02 – 01:02:14:01
Unknown
You know well that’s sage advice I think it’s a great place to wrap up here. So Scott I always enjoyed talking with you. You’re such an insightful guy. Such a humble guy. I after seeing, you know, seeing your business in person in January, I can really see how that has trickled down into the business you and your dad have built.
01:02:14:02 – 01:02:50:00
Unknown
incredible admiration for it. And thank you for letting us be a partner in your success. yeah. Truly grateful. So.
01:03:30:12 – 01:03:46:04
Unknown
It’s absolutely our pleasure. Thank you so much. All right, Scott. Well, thanks again for today. Appreciate it. And, we’ll talk to you again before too long, I’m sure. Have a good rest of your day.
01:03:46:06 – 01:03:51:18
Unknown
I look forward to that. All right. Cheers, Scott. Thank you, sir. Two.
01:03:57:20 – 01:04:20:06
Unknown
Afternoon there, buddy. How’s it going today? Oh, it’s going good. Sunny and beautiful. What do you got for me today? Springtime. So, I just just literally hung up. maybe ten minutes ago with Scott Short. Us from advanced, an amazing company down in just north of Tulsa. Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I actually got to go visit them in January.
01:04:20:06 – 01:04:42:08
Unknown
And, I’d always liked Scott and just, you know, he actually, he was my very first guest on Machine Shop Mastery. oh. Right. He was the very first one sort of launch interview. and just very thoughtful guy. Very. And culture. Very team oriented, super lean oriented. I know that’ll resonate with you. Oh, like him already?
01:04:42:10 – 01:04:54:22
Unknown
Yeah. And, and, you know, they’re they’re a little better shop about 50 people and, and some incredible capabilities. They have,
01:04:54:22 – 01:05:00:19
Unknown
two five axis, you know, machines bolted on to this fast, system with a robot that loads all the pallets.
01:05:00:21 – 01:05:23:16
Unknown
It’s really impressive for this, you know, tiny little town in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma. Right. And they do very much very high end aerospace defense work. But, but, they like, like many clients, they were on E2 before a pro shop and, and it’s, you know, worked really well for a lot of years.
01:05:23:18 – 01:05:44:11
Unknown
but one of their clients came to them and said, we need you to have, finite capacity backward scheduling. Like, he said they actually had a good quality or a good delivery rating with this particular client. okay. But that client’s just wanting them to just up their game all the time and, like, make sure they were one of their most preferred vendors.
01:05:44:11 – 01:06:08:09
Unknown
And they were already were, you know, beating their head against the wall as he as he to use his words, you know, on some things, you know, because they would use the system as like just like a database of information, but then they would just export everything to spreadsheets and like, run the business on spreadsheets. Okay. And, so, he said that they used to have to work for the system, and now the system is working for them.
01:06:08:11 – 01:06:36:11
Unknown
music. Music players. Awesome. Yeah. And it’s a sentiment I have heard before. So it’s it’s wonderful when you hear that. but, one of the real notable things which we profess all the time, but some clients really embrace it super well and others take a little bit more time. Is that it is so worth it to invest a little bit more effort upfront in planning, and you’re going to earn it 100 times on the back end, he said.
01:06:36:11 – 01:06:46:12
Unknown
Their routers used to have up ten was issue material and he’s like, hey, aren’t you going to plan the job quality of the job? Like, what?
01:06:46:12 – 01:06:49:02
Unknown
So he’s like, let’s let’s do some planning.
01:06:49:02 – 01:06:56:11
Unknown
And they’ve seen such massive benefits on the back end of doing so. So that is, you know, very much in line with
01:06:56:11 – 01:07:14:04
Unknown
some of the concepts that you, you know, originally built into our spreadsheets. Right? Yeah. No. That’s awesome. And I particularly love you talking about them, you know, finite scheduling. It’s like one of those it’s one of those things that I think is underrated in the sense that, you know, it’s like, whatever one way or the other.
01:07:14:05 – 01:07:30:22
Unknown
But I think that it forces some of those kinds of behaviors you’re talking about right now, which is like, hey, let’s have the plan laid out enough in advance that we can actually finite schedule. It’s not like a nebulous thing that’s kind of out there somewhere. And it’s going to take some hours. It’s it’s really no, no, this is the plan.
01:07:31:04 – 01:07:48:07
Unknown
How are we going to squeeze it into the allotted time? And if we need a shift for Saturday, let’s book Saturday and know how much that helps, you know. Yeah. So yeah. Finite scheduling I feel like drives a lot of good behaviors. Yeah. And he said that was in very much contrast to what he would consider capacity planning previously but not scheduling.
01:07:48:09 – 01:08:13:12
Unknown
Right, right. Yeah. Or scheduling had to be on a spreadsheet and it just wasn’t sufficient enough to, to work well. And then the other part that they, they really have leaned into is process development. yeah. Or like deep into it and there’s he he said that was one of the very first things they really latched onto is, you know, getting the machinists, the operators, people to put information in there because they want to capture that.
01:08:13:14 – 01:08:30:14
Unknown
it goes right along with that lean philosophy, right? You want to you want to get people who really know what the problems are because they’re experiencing them to start contributing in a meaningful way. And draw other people in. And that’s how Process Talbot works. Right. Let’s let’s write it down first so that everybody can see it and then start pulling people in, hey, how are we going to deal with this?
01:08:30:15 – 01:08:40:20
Unknown
What’s up with this message of planner right now? This is urgent. You know, that’s yeah. That’s great. That’s a lean, collaborative kind of, kind of space. Yeah. For them. Yeah, it absolutely is.
01:08:40:20 – 01:09:05:17
Unknown
And just sticking with the lean concepts. So he said, you know, back in 2007, I think he said when they really started implementing lean, it was all about, you know, Kaizen on the shop floor, Kaizen on the shop floor. And he said, you know, they made some good progress there, but they would continuously, like, flow these blockers from the office that would just implode, you know, the progress you’d made on the shop floor.
01:09:05:19 – 01:09:29:07
Unknown
And he’s like, let’s talk about some kaizen, some improvements in the office and setting up the shop for success. And, I know I can remember and I still have pictures, you know, in the computer and mental pictures of you and the team and yellow vests, you know, with big pieces of craft paper, you know, spread all down the office floor doing doing value stream mapping and doing Kaizen events and.
01:09:29:09 – 01:09:47:22
Unknown
Yeah, and a lot of those, a lot of those activities, some of them, not all of them, but many of them turned into pro shop tickets that became features. Yeah, absolutely. And that, that that idea of being able to empower people at every level and especially at the front side, like, you know, it starts even higher up.
01:09:47:22 – 01:10:06:13
Unknown
And then machine shops usually get a chance to influence, but it starts when somebody’s designing something and every machine shop knows it. Right. How much waste can you add at the design, element of the of the phase? Oh, I just put a plus minus five on that. Not even thinking about it. Right. Like, oh, normally that sounds easy, but in this case, that’s really hard.
01:10:06:13 – 01:10:23:17
Unknown
Why did you put so much cost on it? Yeah. And then it just keeps going from there. Right. Planning in the office is absolutely an opportunity to create a lot of waste if you’re not careful. Yeah. Wow. Cool. Good for them. Yeah I love to talk with them about maybe getting some kaizen work orders if they’re not already using those.
01:10:23:17 – 01:10:41:11
Unknown
Or get into some of the five S tools we have. And you know, especially folks who are big into leave, they they can get into that stuff and start using some of those. Well, you just gave me an idea. I’ll make an intro and you and he can get on a call and maybe work for that and turn that into some, good, good, fruitful, lean pro shop conversations.
01:10:41:13 – 01:10:47:15
Unknown
Nice. Cool. Well, sounds like a good one. Yeah. Thanks for catching up. Talk to you soon. Bye bye.
