Buy the Numbers #

"I'm too small for an ERP." I hear this constantly. I disagree with it completely. Sat down with Jon L. Hughes, CPA from CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen) and Brian Schoonover from TURFCO on Buy the Numbers # this week, and neither of them buys the too-small excuse either. Jon called it flat out fiction. His logic: if you're manufacturing, you've got a ton of moving pieces to manage. Those pieces have to connect somehow. There are affordable ERPs built for exactly that stage. Brian's living the other end of it right now, replacing a system Turfco installed back in 1989. His take... act like the company you want to be, not the one you are today. My view…even a one-person shop with modest growth plans, I'd still want a real ERP in place. I came into manufacturing from the outside. Implementing ProShop ERP in my first few months at Hill Manufacturing & Fabrication was the best and most important decision I made, period. It let me modernize operations around industry best practices instead of guessing. It gave me a core data system built on a solid QMS platform...sustainable and scalable from day one, not something I'd have to rip out once we grew. You’ll never be to small for good data. 🎧 Buy the Numbers: Are You Too Small for an ERP? Listen today on the MakingChips website or your fav pod player! #GrowingValue #DataDrivenDecisions #NumbersMatter #MFGLeader #MakingChips #SaveAShop MakingChips Machine Shop Mastery Buy the Numbers # The Manufacturing Executive Podcast Manufacturing Blueprint Podcast The Raw Material Podcast Nick Goellner Paul Van Metre Jennifer Dubose Brooke Laing Dustin Dubose

Four weeks from shutting the doors. That's how close Jack Watson's family business came to not existing — fifty years before he'd ever run it himself. Jack Watson is the fourth generation to run HFW Industries, a thermal spray and hard-facing shop in Buffalo, NY that got its start when his great-grandfather bought one of the first thermal spray guns out of the back of a salesman's car — then sold the service out of the back of his own, dropping off donuts to GE every Monday whether they wanted him there or not. Every generation since has faced a moment that could've ended it. His grandfather took over at 26, newly married, with a house they'd just built — and bankers telling him he had four weeks left. His dad rebuilt half the company when the print-cylinder business went to zero. Eighty years and four generations later, HFW is a 60-person shop still serving customers it first won three generations ago, and Jack — in his own words, "you need a psychology degree to run a machine shop" — is carrying forward a culture built on management by walking around, near-zero debt, and treating people like they matter regardless of title. In the full episode: • How a great-grandfather selling thermal spray out of the back of his car turned into a 60-person, 70,000-square-foot shop four generations later • Surviving a "four weeks from closing" crisis, and rebuilding half the business when the print-cylinder line went to zero • Why Jack says you need a psychology degree to run a machine shop — matching personalities, teaching veterans how to teach, and letting young guys make cheap mistakes • Rebuilding HFW's apprenticeship program into a structured curriculum that goes beyond trade school • Treating recruiting like sales — building the funnel through word of mouth, being a good employer, and showing up authentically on social media • The simple "thank you" that brought a machinist to tears, and why the little things aren't little • Why HFW still runs on almost no debt, and where gas turbines, power generation, and AI are pushing demand next Episode 128 with Jack Watson of HFW Industries — four generations, eighty years, and a family business built on showing up for people. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gjVd6PZb 🎥 https://lnkd.in/diayMMXv #MachineShopMastery #Manufacturing #MachineShop #CNC #AmericanManufacturing #FamilyBusiness #ThermalSpray Mike Payne Paul Van Metre Jennifer Dubose Dustin Dubose Joe Sullivan Jon Franko Peyton Warren Paul Barnes Nihal Shetty Brendon DiVincenzo Jason Davis James Marzilli Lee Marzilli Brendon Forrest 🪖🦍 Nush A. Brooke Laing

Dave Hataj of Edgerton Gear says manufacturers can be an army that heals society — by being the hero one kid needed. Dave Hataj (Craftsman with Character, Edgerton Gear) and Courtney Silver (Ketchie, Opportunity Knocks) join this GenCNC episode to break down how shops mentor the next generation of machinists. From the full conversation: - Think back to when you were 18 or 19 — who was the hero who saw something in you? - Manufacturers can be that person for a struggling kid, right now - Twelve years of rising productivity traces back to investing in young, purpose-driven employees - Twenty years from now, these kids will be talking about the shop that invested in them We make gears as a vehicle to invest in people. Full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/eEqmCvYG #MetalworkingNation #Manufacturing #CNCMachining #MachineShop #Machinists #ManufacturingLeadership #GenCNC #SkilledTrades #WorkforceDevelopment #Mentorship #ManufacturingCareers Mike Payne Paul Van Metre @https://lnkd.in/dZquZqwh Jennifer Dubose Dustin Dubose Joe Sullivan Jon Franko Peyton Warren Paul Barnes Nihal Shetty Brendon DiVincenzo Jason Davis James Marzilli Lee Marzilli Brendon Forrest 🪖🦍 Nush A. Brooke Laing

Chicago, I'm coming for you! Fitting that this week's IMTS hat celebrates Chicago. I'm in Chicagoland this week...kickoff party Wednesday night, Manufacturing Pathways Consortium Thursday. Let's go! If you're free Wednesday evening, don't miss the pre-party. MakingChips is teaming up with Chris Luecke from Manufacturing Happy Hour to throw a Rockford IMTS happy hour before the show even opens. Grab a ticket: https://lnkd.in/gsat3Hmh IMTS - International Manufacturing Technology Show is celebrating 54 years in Chicago the right way. First 100 people to register for #IMTS2026 this week get an exclusive Chicago hat with the skyline patch. Code IMTS26CHICAGO gets you registered and the hat. Register here: https://hubs.ly/Q04rw7Yt0 See you in a few hours, Chi-town. #IMTS2026 Mary Cecile Neville Michelle Edmonson, CEM Bonnie Gurney Paul Van Metre Jennifer Dubose Brooke Laing Nick Goellner Dustin Dubose

Nico McTague isn't even in her first welding job yet — and she's already thinking about who she can bring up behind her. "I want to make it known that no matter what you've done in your past, what type of life you've lived, what kind of confidence level you have, there's a space for you here and there's people who are willing to walk you through it," she says. In the full episode, we dive into: • From healthcare burnout (and the addiction that came with it) to falling in love with a steel mill she expected to hate • Why she took the leap into an 8-month welding program with zero trades background • Finishing every certification before the rest of her cohort — and the one habit she credits for it • Treating trade school like a job: starting the job search before graduation, keeping certs current • Being the only woman on a 40-person crew — and what she wants in her first welding job • Why she's not afraid to ask questions, and why that's a superpower, not a weakness • Her mission to mentor more women into the trades and close the representation gap • Why getting kids tinkering at nine or ten matters more than the industry admits MakingSparks is brought to you by Eagle Lasers. #MakingSparks #MetalFabrication #Welding #LaserCutting #MetalworkingNation #WomenInTrades #WeldingSchool #SkilledTrades #CareerChange #TradesLife Mike Payne Paul Van Metre Jennifer Dubose Dustin Dubose Joe Sullivan Jon Franko Peyton Warren Paul Barnes Nihal Shetty Brendon DiVincenzo Jason Davis James Marzilli Lee Marzilli Brendon Forrest 🪖🦍 Nush A. Brooke Laing @eagle-lasers-usa

Perfection can become one of the biggest roadblocks to improvement. Too often in manufacturing, we wait until we have the entire solution figured out before making the first change. The result? An improvement that could start today gets delayed for weeks, months—or never happens at all. You don’t have to fix everything at once. Make the first improvement....Learn from it....Adjust....Keep moving. Progress creates momentum. Perfection often creates delay. Which approach wins in your shop: FIX IT NOW or WAIT FOR PERFECT? Make sure to follow Manufacturing Blueprint Podcast #Manufacturing #ContinuousImprovement #LeanManufacturing #Leadership #OperationalExcellence #TheManufacturingBlueprint D&D Enterprises of Greensboro, Inc. Paul Barnes Issac Burton Paul Van Metre Mike Payne Nick Goellner Dustin Dubose Jennifer Dubose Brooke Laing