Building Shops That Last: The Final Lesson of Machine Shop MBA, 501
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Release Date: 12/29/2025
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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_outlineAs 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 years of benchmarking data, Brent helps us connect the dots across operations, finance, leadership, and strategy. Together, we reflect on a clear shift happening across manufacturing: moving away from pure “rise and grind” thinking and toward intentionally designed systems.
Throughout the episode, we revisit five deceptively simple questions pulled directly from the Top Shops survey. These questions challenge assumptions and expose where real opportunity lives. From RFQ response time and revenue per employee to reinvestment discipline, standardized scheduling, and succession planning, each one reinforces a central theme we’ve explored all year.
Rather than chasing the next machine or relying on one big customer, the most resilient shops we see are building repeatable processes, measuring what matters, and reducing dependence on tribal knowledge. This conversation serves as both a reflection on what we’ve learned through the Machine Shop MBA series and a call to action as we head into 2026.
If there’s one takeaway we hope sticks, it’s this: the shops that last aren’t just collections of people and equipment. They are systems. Designed on purpose. Improved on purpose. And built to outlast any one individual.
Segments
- (0:00) Wrapping up 2025 and closing out the Machine Shop MBA series
- (0:36) Why we created the series and partnered with CLA and Modern Machine Shop
- (2:25) Why you need to head to the 2026 IMTS Exhibitor Workshop
- (4:34) The shift from viewing shops as machines and people to viewing them as systems
- (7:52) Moving from survival mode to disciplined, systems-based thinking
- (12:33) Top Shops Question #1: RFQ response time as a competitive advantage
- (15:55) Top Shops Question #2: Revenue per employee as a true efficiency metric
- (17:15) What’s Your Method? The unique financing process with Methods Machine Tools
- (26:47) Grow your top and bottom line with CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA)
- (27:37) How automation, workholding, and systems increase output per person
- (32:16) Top Shops Question #3: Reinvesting in equipment, software, and training
- (36:50) Why consistent reinvestment beats sporadic big spending
- (37:51) Top Shops Question #4: Standardized scheduling versus tribal knowledge
- (40:22) How poor systems create stress and constant firefighting
- (43:05) Top Shops Question #5: Leadership and ownership transition planning
- (46:01) The Top Shops 2026 Benchmarking survey opens February 1st, 2026
- (47:27) How benchmarking accelerates maturity and reveals real gaps
- (48:19) How we use the Top Shops survey as part of annual strategic planning
- (49:19) Looking ahead to 2026 and continued collaboration
- (50:00) Why we love the SMW Autoblok catalog and quality
- (51:11) Final call to action and why benchmarking matters
Resources mentioned on this episode
- Why you need to head to the 2026 IMTS Exhibitor Workshop
- What’s Your Method? The financing process with Methods Machine Tools
- The Top Shops 2026 Benchmarking survey opens February 1st, 2026
- Check out the SMW Autoblok catalog and quality