Building a Winning Team: Matt Wardle’s Blueprint for Machine Shop Success, 483
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Release Date: 09/15/2025
We Put AI in the Hot Seat: Machine Shop Advice from Chatbots, 502
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
We’ve kicked off a lot of years on MakingChips, but never quite like this. To start 2026, we decided to try something completely different. Instead of bringing on a shop owner, a technology provider, or an industry expert, Mike and Paul invited three artificial intelligence chatbots to join the conversation. No prep calls. No talking points. Just live questions and real-time answers from Miles (from Sesame), Gemini, and ChatGPT. The result was equal parts fascinating, funny, and just a little bit eerie. In this episode, we explore what happens when you ask AI the same...
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Building Shops That Last: The Final Lesson of Machine Shop MBA, 501
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
As we close out 2025, we’re wrapping up more than just a year. This episode marks the conclusion of the Machine Shop MBA series, a collaboration with CLA and Modern Machine Shop built around insights from the Top Shops benchmarking program. What started as a practical exploration of shop metrics ends with a much bigger question: what truly separates shops that survive from shops that endure? For this final chapter, we’re joined again by Brent Donaldson of Modern Machine Shop, who helped kick off the series earlier in the year. Drawing from hundreds of shop visits and...
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At the Boring Bar: Rare Perfection, Real Talk, and the Systems That Separate Top Shops, 500
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Some episodes are planned. Others are produced. And then there are episodes like this one—where the setting, the people, and the moment all collide into something memorable. For the 500th episode of MakingChips, the team gathered once again At the Boring Bar for an unfiltered, bourbon-fueled roundtable with leaders from across the manufacturing ecosystem. Recorded live at Roush Yates Manufacturing Solutions during the Top Shops Conference in Charlotte, this special annual episode brings together shop owners, executives, advisors, and industry partners for the kinds of conversations...
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From Scarcity to Sales Pipeline: How Smart Shops Take Control of Growth with Factur, 499
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
What happens when a machine shop does everything right operationally but still feels exposed when markets shift, customers pull back, or one industry cools overnight? In this episode of MakingChips, the conversation turns squarely toward one of the most uncomfortable and misunderstood areas of manufacturing leadership: proactive sales and diversification. We’re joined by Gabe Draper, founder of Factur, and Alan Hartmann, CEO of Hartmann’s Inc., a multi-generation Texas manufacturer. Gabe shares a raw and honest origin story that starts with growing up in a manufacturing family, fighting to...
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Chaos, Curiosity & Chipmaking: Larry Robbins’ Wild Ride Through Manufacturing, 498
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Some conversations feel scripted. This one… absolutely did not. Larry Robbins walked in ready to talk life, passion, family, culture, workholding, philosophy, and whatever else popped into his head — and somehow it all connected back to manufacturing. This episode of MakingChips is one of the most unhinged, hilarious, honest, and wisdom-packed conversations we’ve ever recorded. Larry has been in the industry for nearly 46 years, and he’s collected enough stories, scars, and laughs for ten careers. From his father dragging him into the business (“long hair doesn’t work...
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The Double Your Value Mindset: Planning, Growth & Real Talk from the EGS Event, 497
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
In this special episode of MakingChips, we broadcast from the EBITDA Growth Systems Double Your Value Planning Event—a gathering designed to pull shop owners out of the day-to-day grind and force intentional thinking about long-term growth. This year’s event was hosted at the Sandvik Coromant facility in Mebane, North Carolina, creating a perfect backdrop for conversations about planning, strategy, and culture. Paul is joined by three key voices who bring decades of hard-earned manufacturing wisdom: Jim Carr, a founding voice of MakingChips; Zach Overton, who is deep in the trenches of...
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Forged Through Fire: How Phoenix Heat Treating Rebuilt Its Culture, Systems & Leadership, 496
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
In this episode of MakingChips, we sit down with Charlie Hushek, President of Phoenix Heat Treating, whose family has been in the heat-Treating world for over a century. Charlie is a fifth-generation heat Treatinger—but his leadership story is anything but inherited. When he stepped into the business in 2020, he wasn’t handed stability. He was handed a crisis. Within a matter of months, Phoenix Heat Treating lost its NADCAP certification—twice—suffered major operational setbacks, faced COVID turmoil, and endured the tragic loss of their general manager. For a company where more...
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Inside the Winners’ Circle: Top Shops 2025 Live from the NASCAR Hall of Fame, 495
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Top Shops 2025 brought together the most innovative, forward-thinking leaders in manufacturing—and this year’s gathering at the NASCAR Hall of Fame felt like stepping directly into the winners’ circle. Surrounded by the energy of hundreds of top-tier manufacturers, we sat down with the four shops recognized as the crème de la crème in their categories: Technology, Shopfloor Technology, Business Strategy, and Human Resources. Together, these honorees represent what’s possible when ambition meets execution. In this special episode of MakingChips, recorded live in Charlotte, we talk...
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IMTS Insider: Building the World’s Largest Manufacturing Show, 494
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
When you walk into IMTS—the International Manufacturing Technology Show—it’s easy to be awestruck by the machines, the energy, and the sheer scale. But few people realize just how much planning, logistics, and collaboration go into bringing that experience to life. In this episode of MakingChips, we sit down with Mark Kennedy, Senior Director of Exhibitions at AMT, to get a behind-the-scenes look at how the world’s largest manufacturing trade show comes together. This conversation dives deep into the IMTS Exhibitor Workshop, a two-day event that helps exhibitors prepare for...
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High Quality People, High Quality Work: Making Small Big with Goldman Sachs 10KSB, 493
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
We’re coming to you once again from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit in Washington, D.C.—the largest gathering of small business owners in U.S. history. This time, we’re joined by two inspiring leaders from the Metalworking Nation who prove that the heart of American manufacturing beats strongest in small towns and family-run shops. Our guests, Jenny Steffensmeier, owner of Steffensmeier Welding & Manufacturing in Pilot Grove, Iowa, and Paul Bothe, third-generation owner of a CNC job shop in Kenosha, Wisconsin, share how the Goldman Sachs...
info_outlineEvery machine shop leader knows you can buy the best equipment, implement cutting-edge automation, and have bulletproof processes—but without the right team and culture, growth will stall. In this episode of MakingChips Machine Shop MBA, we talk with Matt Wardle, President of JD Machine, about how he transformed a small Utah shop into a 210-person powerhouse by prioritizing people and culture over everything else.
Matt’s story shows what happens when leadership takes workforce development seriously. From his early days as a 10-person shop owner watching competitors poach his talent, to becoming a two-time Top Shops winner recognized for HR and culture, Matt has built a system for attracting, training, and retaining the kind of people who make growth possible.
We dive deep into JD Machine’s unique approach to workforce development: Department of Labor-approved apprenticeship programs, high school counselor outreach, profit-sharing models, mentorship incentives, and cultural rituals like celebrating apprenticeship completions with a “Masters Jacket.” The result? A company that not only keeps top talent but grows its own leaders from within.
If you’ve ever wondered how to build a resilient shop culture where employees feel invested, customers trust your team, and growth becomes sustainable, this conversation delivers the blueprint. Matt shows that “winning” in manufacturing isn’t just about throughput or margins—it’s about building people who build the business.
Segments
- (0:58) Introducing Matt Wardle of JD Machine: from 10 employees to a 210-person operation
- (4:30) Early lessons in retention and the shift from poaching talent to building a pipeline
- (7:44) Why you should register and see us at AMT’s MTForecast
- (11:41) Community outreach: hosting school counselors, sponsoring robotics, and changing perceptions
- (17:10) Open houses, virtual field trips, and branding your shop to future employees
- (15:00) Mentorship structure, incentives for trainers, and celebrating completions with the “Masters Jacket”
- (19:20) Tracking the right metrics: turnover, reviews, skill increases, and retention as KPIs
- (22:58) Apprenticeship program design: 8,000 hours, Department of Labor approval, and clear pay raises
- (27:57) Grow your top and bottom line with CliftonLarsonAllen
- (28:32) How small shops can scale their workforce systems over time
- (30:18) Building your own curriculum: Tooling U, NTMA U, Titans of CNC, and customizing courses
- (31:50) Encouraging on-the-job learning during machine cycle times
- (34:10) Mentorship structure and incentives for experienced machinists training apprentices
- (36:05) Recruiting under-18 students through legislative partnerships and state risk management
- (37:52) How NTMA chapters create collaboration and make SkillsUSA more impactful
- (39:35) Balancing competitive pay with margins and long-term stability
- (43:58) Profit-sharing and open-book management to drive engagement and retention
- (44:44) Lessons learned from losing good employees and being proactive about retention
- (49:55) Matt’s closing thoughts: people who align with your core values become your greatest asset
- (51:40) The countdown is on: See us at Top Shops 2025 in Charlotte, NC
Resources mentioned on this episode
- JD Machine
- Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
- Why you should check out AMT’s MTForecast
- Matt’s episode on Machine Shop Mastery (all about culture)
- Grow your top and bottom line with CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA)
- The countdown is on: See us at Top Shops 2025 in Charlotte, NC (code MAK20 for 20% off)