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Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders

Manufacturing is challenging, but if you are connected to a community of leaders, you can elevate your skills, solve your problems and grow your business! MakingChips was launched in 2014 to equip and inspire the metalworking nation. Hundreds of episodes and a million downloads later, it’s an industry-leading source of information, inspiration, and entertainment for manufacturing leaders of all types. It’s hosted by Jason Zenger and Nick Goellner, two multi-generational manufacturing leaders, and they’re joined by a rotating panel of expert guests – including Titan Gilroy (TITANS of CNC), John Saunders (NYC CNC), Mark TerryBerry (Haas Automation), and many more. Join us as we tackle the topics that keep you up at night - leadership, operations, technology, growth, workforce development and culture.
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Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
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Now displaying: January, 2015
Jan 26, 2015

The image is that manufacturing is a dirty, physical, turning-cranks, labor intensive job, but the facts is that the machining industry is one of the most technological forward and innovative industries. In this seventh episode, Jim and I discuss how the industry has changed along with machine and software technology. Jim tells an interesting stories about when his dad

ran the shop and one of his machinist screwed up a part, which you can’t do nowadays and I throw out how old I was when Jim started in the industry.

More high schools are teaching manufacturing skills.

In our Manufacturing News segment, we discuss how Wheeling High School (Wheeling, IL) has been turning out hire-ready manufacturing students for the last six years. Part of Germany’s education model is that a 15 year old will enter into an internship whereby manufacturing is one of the top choices.

In our Metalworking Tools segment, we discuss the advantages of thread milling: control the size, breakage, tool life.

Jan 19, 2015

Are international standards important for your company or your partners? In this

sixth episode, Jim and I discuss standards and the impact of ISO on his company. We discuss

the specific standards of ISO 9001 (Quality Management), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management)

& OHSAS 18001 (Health & Safety).

Fun Facts: ISO, the International Organization of Standards, has 3 official languages (English,

French & Russian). ISO is derived from the Greek isos, meaning equal. The International Organization

for Standards is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and is associated with the

United Nations.

Should you hire an outside consultant to outline a plan and help you along the process?

What can ISO do for your business culture?

Every company is going to be different, but Jim discusses his annual cost of ISO renewal and

the amount of time that his staff spends on ISO per week.

How does the ISO champion interact with other employees?

In our Manufacturing News segment, we discuss the Multi Jet Fusion Printer, a 3D printer

from HP.

In our Metalworking Tools segment, we discuss straight flute reamers versus spiral flute

reamers and left hand versus right hand spiral flute reamers.

Jan 12, 2015

Is there a plan in place at your company if a top employee, such as the president or owner

dies? Episode five is the first in a new interview format on MakingChips. In this fifth episode,

we talk to Stacey Bales about her story of taking over as President of Bales Mold Service (recently

rebranded as Bales Metal Surface Solutions).

The first reaction from the bank is “How are we going to liquidate?”

Who takes over when multiple family members are involved and no succession plan has been

setup? Major issues arise, such as trust among family members - when there is no succession

plan, family members will fight out their new roles instead of moving into the proper roles

right away. The family needs to establish that they are all on the same team and not out for

themselves.

“Be very transparent with the person that you believe is coming up.” The owner of every

manufacturing company should be transparent about how they want to handle the succession

of their company and have a vision about where they want the company to go.

Stacey Bales is the 2nd generation owner and President of Bales Metal Surface Solutions. Bales

provides engineered coating and finishes to mold makers and OEMs. They have locations in

Illinois and Texas. In addition, Stacey is on the Board of Directors of the TMA (Technology and

Manufacturing Association) and President of AESF (American Electro & Surface Finishers).

In our Manufacturing News segment, we discuss a news article about the City of Atlanta. They

are short on manufacturing skilled labor resulting in six figure incomes for certain positions.

In our Metalworking Tools segment, we discuss Southwestern Industries (CNC Technology for

Small Lot Machining). Southwestern machines are intended to produce small lots of parts, so

you can go from programming to producing parts much quicker than traditional CNC lathes

and mills with easy to use ProtoTRAK programming.

 

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