Episode 82

82: Built to Last: Mentorship, Manufacturing, and the Matrix Mindset

Lisa Kenning, CEO of Matrix Automation, alongside her powerhouse team: Don Rentz, Greg Millinger, and special guest Scott Walberg.

Lisa shares her journey from helping her dad at age 10 to leading a company at the forefront of digital transformation in manufacturing. Together, the group dives into the importance of mentorship, the legacy of family-run businesses, and how lean principles and traceability tech have helped manufacturers achieve near-zero defect rates—even in highly complex, regulated environments.

What We Cover:

  • Lisa’s early days at Matrix and the values instilled by her father
  • Why mentorship—both formal and informal—matters, especially for women in manufacturing
  • How Matrix Automation helps manufacturers reduce defects and improve traceability
  • Real-world success stories from automotive and medical device manufacturing
  • Why lean principles apply across all industries—from bourbon to wheelchairs
  • The hidden costs of waiting too long to invest in continuous improvement
  • Empowering frontline operators through smarter systems and data
  • Learning across generations: Mahjong, magnetism, and mental health

Featured Guests:

  • Lisa Kenning, CEO, Matrix Automation
  • Don Rentz, General Manager, Matrix Automation
  • Greg Millinger, Technologist & Product Architect
  • Scott Walberg, President, Lean Innovation, LLC

💡 Key Quotes:

“We didn’t buy an off-the-shelf system. We partnered with Matrix and created something custom. That’s why it worked.” – Scott Walberg

“My dad started this company to serve the customer better. That value still drives everything we do.” – Lisa Kenning

“Whether you're building 1,200 units or 100, the tools are the same. Lean is universal.” – Don Rentz
Transcript
Speaker:

Lori hyvee, Chris Harrington

and Aaron Courtney.

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Three Broads bringing new

stories and strategies,

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exploring manufacturing topics.

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That challenge the status quo while

laying the foundations for future success.

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Together with special guests,

they'll celebrate what's working

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and unpack what is not so you

can learn, grow, and succeed.

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You wanna learn more about your host?

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Make sure to listen to episode one.

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Kris Harrington: All right.

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welcome everybody Ladies, have you

ever been mentored or been a mentor?

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Lori Highby: yes.

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Tell me

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Kris Harrington: about it.

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Lori Highby: Sure.

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I've been mentored through podcasts,

books I've read, and just having

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conversations with people that

I have a lot of respect with.

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I've never been in a formal mentorship

but I've been a formal mentor,

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through a number of organizations.

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in Milwaukee, there's Temple Milwaukee,

and I'm assigned a mentee every year.

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and I love doing that.

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I love, love, love doing that.

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And I did one through the Green

Bay Packers mentor program

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So I did that.

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they connected me with another business

owner, and I was mentoring her.

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a few years ago.

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we still stay in touch and meet up.

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that's been a great experience.

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Oh, I love that.

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That's so

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Erin Courtney: cool.

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I can see you being

amazing at that, Laurie.

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Thank you.

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I really would like to.

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an organization I'm working with right

now, we have assigned mentors internally.

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it's been fun because we're shadowing

one another and it's nice to share the

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nitty gritty with, somebody you work with.

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Usually it's just outcomes, outcomes,

outcomes, but here's my process.

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learning from her as well.

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I'm glad you asked the question, but

why'd you ask the question, Chris?

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Kris Harrington: Well, you know, our

friend Nicole Donnelly, that does mm-hmm.

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The Hello Moxie podcast.

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Yeah.

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She is starting a formal

mentor program for women.

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she was telling me about it and it

got me thinking about mentoring,

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women having female mentors.

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when I was, increasing in my

career, I never had a female mentor.

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not because I didn't want one, but

there weren't a lot of women in the

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roles I was seeking When I asked, for

mentorship, it was all males in the role.

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I looked up to a lot of women and I

certainly learned from a lot of women,

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but I've had the chance to mentor

women, there's so much value for those

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of us that are in the tech space, for

those of us that are in manufacturing.

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Just because they're, you know, we're

trying to increase the number of women

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that we see in both manufacturing and

tech, and I think women learning, and

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especially young women learning from

other women, why we find these industries

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so exciting can be really valuable.

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Thank you Alright, question.

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Let's, introduce our guest today.

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We have Lisa Kenning here with us, as

the CEO of Matrix Automation, founded by

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her father, Lisa Kenning grew up in the

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Automation industry,

Starting with cleaning tasks.

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She began visiting manufacturing

customers to understand their needs.

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Lisa's passion for automation drives

her to help manufacturers optimize

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operations, comply with regulations,

and implement safety critical strategies

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Traceability and genealogy.

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Lisa's team at Matrix is committed to

digital transformation and Industry 4.0,

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delivering solutions such as

paperless manufacturing, electronic

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work instructions, and digital

lean for smarter factories.

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So Lisa, welcome to the show.

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Lisa Kenning: Thank you for the warm

welcome and I love the discussion that you

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girls kick this off with, with mentoring.

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I, I have, two people here from Matrix and

I feel like they are not woman mentors,

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but they are two tremendous mentors to me.

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And, it, yeah, I'm very

lucky to have them.

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Kris Harrington: Well, excellent.

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We're glad you have them.

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it would be great if you gave

them an opportunity to introduce

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themselves to our audience

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my name is Don Rentz and I've

been with Matrix Automation for 27

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years and 10 months I have a 28th

anniversary coming up in June.

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Excuse me.

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Lisa Kenning: Yay.

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I'm a general manager at Matrix and,

I've, you know, done a lot of different

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job functions, you know, as I've,

I've been working here, obviously I've

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been here for a long time, and, I,

I help in a bunch of different ways.

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up to and including sometimes becoming

the project manager It depends on

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what kind of resources are needed.

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Kris Harrington: Well,

nice to meet you, Don.

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Thank you,

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Kris Harrington: Greg.

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Greg Milinger: Hey.

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my name's Greg Millinger and,

kinda unique story because I

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started at Matrix 1993 and I.

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Built the production wear platform

that they still use today.

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I was the chief architect

at the time, I left Matrix.

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Then after about eight years I

went to Deloitte, I went to general

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Electric where I became the product

manager for their next generation MES.

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I stayed there for an awful long time and.

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Tata Consulting then Maverick for years.

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We got a acquired by Rockwell,

where I was the Vice President of

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Enterprise Integration there, and then

I retired and then I came back again.

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So I'm back to.

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You know, a very long span of, of missing,

and I'm still a technologist, but I

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also have run very large businesses.

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Kris Harrington: Oh, excellent.

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Nice to meet you, Greg.

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Greg Milinger: Nice to meet you all.

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Kris Harrington: All Scott.

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Scott.

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Hello.

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so my name's Scott Walberg and I

am currently the president of Lean

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Innovation, LLC, consulting company for

any manufacturing environment because

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what we're about to talk about today

really applies to all industries.

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I was a customer, partner with

Matrix automation for 21 years.

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Enjoyed great success

because of that partnership.

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But, a little more about me.

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Even though I've retired with 38 years

in the automotive industry, moved into

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the bourbon industry built bridges,

drilled oil in Texas, built jails and

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prisons and spent spare time selling

cars for large dealerships in Michigan.

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Finding that lean manufacturing,

good manufacturing practices

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apply to any and all industries.

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No one is, unique when it

comes to the application of the

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tools we'll talk about today.

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Thanks for having me.

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Kris Harrington: Nice to meet you.

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Thank you for that introduction I'm

curious, Lisa, Can you tell us a

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little bit about Matrix automation,

what you do for your customers?

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there was a little bit in your

bio, but kind of expand on, on

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what you guys are all doing.

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Lisa Kenning: Yes, thank you.

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I'm excited to talk about this.

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no conversation about Matrix.

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Can start without talking about my dad.

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was born in 1947.

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He, was the oldest of 11 and they

had a farm in the center of our town.

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He, It.

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He was a great son, great big brother.

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He, you know, took care of everybody.

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He, went into the army and then

eventually Cleveland State to get

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his electrical engineering degree.

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And about 10 years later,

maybe a little less.

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in 1983, he started Matrix Automation.

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And the reason he started Matrix

Automation was because he believed that

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there were better ways to serve customers.

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And that's the really important

part of this, is that.

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That was the most important thing to him

then, and it's continued to be, that's

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the driving force behind everything we do.

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And it's behind every

discussion, every decision.

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It always is about the customers, what is

best for them, what are their needs, and

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every customer has such unique needs and.

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the stakes are high, so you have

to, understand and meet those needs.

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in the beginning we, were doing PLCs and,

started in, actually our, our biggest

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customer in the beginning was Norton

and we were doing nors and paint lines.

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And we expanded into automotive

and steel mills, milling industry.

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And, and, and it was really fun for me

to watch the evolution of the company.

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I was 10 years old when he started the

business, and my dad loved what he did,

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so he was always talking about it with me.

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He was always on the

phone with customers with.

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Employees.

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I was always around for

those conversations.

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We were at the office where I got my

start, where I was cleaning the office,

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cleaning the bathrooms, and leaving notes

for employees so that they would have like

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cute little notes to see Monday morning.

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as far as what we do now, I'd love

to toss that over to Don and Greg.

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Sure.

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I think what'd be good for

you to understand is what our

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typical customer looks like.

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that'll help you understand

why we do what we do.

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an ideal customer for Matrix

deals with mixed model assembly.

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they might be assembling, a Cadillac,

SUVA, you know that some of 'em

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are electric and some of 'em are,

are internal combustion, right?

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Mm-hmm.

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And they're being built

on an assembly line.

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And each one coming at the,

the operator is different and

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their work content is different.

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So that's, that's one,

one of the main things.

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What bring, what comes with

that is high complexity.

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if you're building mixed model and you

know, your car, and my car might both be

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Cadillacs, but yours is all tricked out.

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Mine might not be.

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So the work content is, it varies in

each one of the stations as it goes.

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So high complexity is a big part.

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And another one that's.

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You know, that's, is more, if it's

in a regulated industry, that that's

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even more of a sweet spot for us.

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that's why we deal a lot with

automotive with the Tread Act,

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they're big on traceability.

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They wanna know if an airbag.

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Explodes.

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You know what, you know

what, why did it explode?

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And they'll come back to our customers

and they'll ask for, well, was the

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torque bag torqued successfully?

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What were the torques?

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it's always the lawyers coming

back to get that information.

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so our customers have to have

that information available.

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one of the key things that our system

provides is that, you know, we capture

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data live in every one of those assembly

steps and, you know, it's archived.

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And Scott will tell you we

launched with them in:

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the very first production war system he

would tell you that data is very useful.

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In fact, the prior plant manager.

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was in a meeting and someone

asked him, what's the biggest

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benefit from production wear?

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He said, it keeps me

off the hot seat at gm

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Lisa Kenning: because

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I, I'd go in there with the data and

they would, you know, they, they got

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to the point where they stopped calling

'em into the meetings when there was

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a, a quality spill our systems provide

operators with everything they need.

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one key thing is, I say operators

because there's a lot, you know,

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there people might think we do,

robotics and stuff like that.

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We really don't.

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I mean, ours, our, our stations are

manual or semi-manual if there are

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robots, production typically talks

to them to tell them what product

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they have so they can do their thing.

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Mm-hmm.

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So, at the end of the day

customers get is, I, I think

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they get empowered operators.

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Scott, you can speak more to what it

did for you as one of our customers.

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Sure Don, I'd love to talk about that.

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you triggered a lot of thoughts, My

experience with Matrix started back in,

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I guess, that 2000, 2001 range where

our customer had approached us to do

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something we've never done before.

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They've never farmed it out before.

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It was, assembly of very

complex, powertrains and

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suspension modules, and, they.

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Farm that out because internally they

to:

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per million, which measures defects.

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they wanted a zero defect solution.

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Rumor had it, we could provide that

the reality is there's a lot of

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failure modes in putting together

a a V eight, a V six a, a four

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cylinder superchargers, twin turbos.

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The complexity is off the map every

one on the assembly line is different.

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we're building custom.

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modules for a customer in a

luxury vehicle division, it's

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understandable why they wanted zero

defects, but providing that without.

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An MES system.

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and that's what we partnered with

Matrix to put together was a system

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that would not allow a defect to pass

from one workstation on the assembly

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line, a hundred stations down, and

provide a zero defect solution that

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module would go to the customer.

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And so the, the, the commercial is the

results after 21 years of doing such a

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thing resulted in no warranty issues.

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From our line, from our

workmanship, no recalls.

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All those things you see on

television and hear daily about

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defects slipping through to the end

customer, the person buying the car.

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we never had any of those for 21 years.

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previously 12 to 1400 defects

was the norm, partnering with

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Matrix we had a metric of five

parts per million for 21 years.

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And within that 21 years, we actually

had a span of really close to five.

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We just came short of five years with

zero defects coming off the line, which

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is absolutely unheard of in the industry.

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Kris Harrington: That's impressive.

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And I, I know in the automotive

world, obviously as you mentioned,

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you are handling a lot of complexity.

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Typically there are high volumes as well.

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it.

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Are these programs that you're, you're

instilling in, in helping operators

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with Empower, the empowering them.

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Are they also useful for

organizations that may not have the

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volumes of the automotive world?

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Can you speak to that a little

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yeah, I can address that when you get

outside of automotive, one of the other,

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regulatory agencies involved in our

systems is the FDA, we deal with, we

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have no, I don't know, 10, 12, plants

that assemble electric wheelchairs.

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Right.

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They had the same kind of requirements.

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they're trying to achieve

the same goals as Scott did.

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And, and you know, I was, we were

just talking to one a couple weeks

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ago, and he said they went from,

they went from a defect rate of like.

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Five, 10 thousands when they ended

up, when they started out it was like

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20% of the product that went off their

line had some type of an issue with it

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that had to be dealt with in the field.

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Now they, they're saving grace.

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Is that typically those wheelchairs

don't go directly to the customer,

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They go through because

they're, typically.

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funded by Medicare, Medicaid,

they go to a dealer.

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that panels their product

and catch a lot there.

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they got it down to, 5:00

PM which is outstanding.

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the volumes there might have

complexity, but are closer to a

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hundred units per day at Scotch plant

the high era they were doing:

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vehicles a day.

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it's smaller, but uses the same

tools and that's the important thing.

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it can cross multiple, whether you're

a small or a large manufacturer.

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there's room for it.

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Erin Courtney: That's interesting.

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the same approach applies regardless of

the size of your client it takes me back

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to what you were saying, Lisa, about

your dad's priority was customer service.

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And that can be.

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Hard to achieve both, right?

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excellence and the customer might

want something that doesn't align

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with your ideas for excellence.

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How do you manage, you know, those

kinds of situations where your customer

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first, but you might know better than

they do or differently than they do.

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How do you handle that?

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Lisa Kenning: Most customers look

to us to, have a, I mean, we have

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a lot of expertise in our team, so

I really don't think that that has

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been a big issue because there are

people, in a lot of cases that we

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have worked with for many, many years.

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So, luckily that hasn't been a huge.

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Issue.

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I, I really do feel like they

lean on us to give them advice.

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Erin Courtney: Mm-hmm.

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So it sounds like you're establishing

trust first your customers are more

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likely to listen to Don and Craig when

they say, we gotta do it this way.

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I love how you started with the story

of your dad and his dedication to

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the company bringing his kids in when

they're so young to be a part of that.

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It seems like that kind of

culture would just become sort

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of obvious to the customer.

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And Scott, speaking from your

experience, did you get that

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sense when working with Matrix

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It did because of their

willingness to listen.

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we didn't buy an off the shelf system.

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We partnered with them and

customized a system our team

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needed, when we collaborated, we

came up with something special.

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And that was the beauty of the

relationship, we worked together so

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well and they provided that solution.

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Lori Highby: I wanna go back to,

your opening question, Chris,

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about, mentorship and, advocacy for

women in the manufacturing space.

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Lisa, I'm curious from you, but I'd

love to hear from everyone today.

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you know, what, what advice would you

have for girls, young women that are

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interested or, in manufacturing space

and how to enter and, and find a mentor?

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That's a

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Lisa Kenning: really good question.

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Yeah.

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I, I think back to the early days, in the

company, and I kind of have a funny story

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that, you know, the very first matrix

automation employee, is retired, but.

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Kind of retired, still works with us.

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he likes to joke about when I'd

call in and say, is my dad, there.

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he'd say, well, there's

a lot of daddies here.

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Which one are you looking for?

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it really shapes things

for you as a girl when.

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You just see men everywhere, I

couldn't see myself in that world.

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I felt more like an outsider,

and girls are still seeing that.

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it's much better today.

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my biggest piece of advice is just to ask

anyone you feel a connection to, even if

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you don't know them, just lean into that

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I have never met any woman in the industry

that is not excited to answer a question.

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Or connect you to someone

who can help or mentor you.

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those resources are there.

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as a woman, we're excited

to see someone interested.

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In manufacturing and engineering,

connect, email, call.

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Kris Harrington: I, I love that.

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And I,

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Lisa Kenning: I, yes.

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And I have, one of my daughters is

thinking about, career in engineering.

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She is a junior in high school and she.

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Went to Ohio State, last month, the

girls were excited to talk to her.

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So that's an example of what's

going on in the industry.

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she came home so excited Oh my

gosh, mom, they're all so nice.

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they were so excited to

show me their projects.

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Mm-hmm.

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And, mm-hmm.

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Tell me about the program and the, the

instructors were very excited to talk

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to her, my advice don't be scared, just

ask questions and, and you're going

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to find that every, woman you talk to

is just super excited to give back.

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Kris Harrington: Yeah, I love that.

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I would also say there are many

supportive men if there isn't

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a woman to ask, ask the men.

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most feel honored and delighted to work

with you So, I would encourage everybody.

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thank you for that, Lisa.

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this is great.

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learning about your organization and

how you started the story of your

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dad sounds like, an American business

story, There are many organizations

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out there, and I really think there

are a lot of listeners that come from

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organizations just like you described.

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We're in such interesting times.

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I think automation is a

really important topic.

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I hope people have learned something

here, I know we just scratched the

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surface, so I hope they reach out to

you to learn more because what you

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are doing can apply in many areas.

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thank you all for sharing.

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At this time I'm just gonna

move into our, you know, I just

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learned that and I'm curious.

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Laurie, what did you just learn?

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Lori Highby: Oh, it's AI related.

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Get ready for it.

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Kris Harrington: Tell us,

376

:

Lori Highby: There's two things.

377

:

it's really fascinating the

B-B-B-B-B-C Maestro, similar to

378

:

the masterclass programs here,

you know, that organization.

379

:

they launched, a writing course taught by.

380

:

The mystery writer who I

absolutely adore, Agatha Christie.

381

:

So they basically like built the

whole AI model to teach this course.

382

:

Oh, isn't that, it's creepy and

fascinating at the same time.

383

:

Right.

384

:

And I, on the same note

of like deceased people.

385

:

A little morbid.

386

:

in Arizona there was a sentencing and

an AI version created of the victim,

387

:

a video created of the victim talking

about his point of view with regards

388

:

to the sentencing what of his murder.

389

:

Yes, it actually happened.

390

:

It's fascinating and creepy.

391

:

So there's this whole thing now

called the rise of the Dead Bots,

392

:

where people are basically taking.

393

:

People that have deceased and

leveraging AI to like bring them

394

:

back to life, Fascinating and creepy

But the AI machine is not stopping.

395

:

Kris Harrington: That is not

a use case I thought about

396

:

Lori Highby: Interesting.

397

:

Aaron, What have you just learned?

398

:

Erin Courtney: I am listening to

the most fascinating book right now.

399

:

It's called Strangers to

Ourselves by Rachel Aviv.

400

:

sort of psychopharmacology

and mental health and mental

401

:

illness is really interesting.

402

:

And one of the things that

I learned listening to the

403

:

book was that sort of the.

404

:

Genesis really of, antidepressants

was when they were administering

405

:

this one medication that they

thought might work for tuberculosis.

406

:

And so they gave this medication to

people in a TB ward and they were like.

407

:

They're dancing, they're happy.

408

:

Like these are usually very

depressing places and these

409

:

people are so, you know, joyful.

410

:

and so one of the physicians that

was exposed to this information began

411

:

to, experiment with it, with some of

his, clients that were suffering from

412

:

depression and, had some success.

413

:

It gets very complicated from there.

414

:

Very complicated story.

415

:

but I thought that was so interesting.

416

:

Kris Harrington: Yeah.

417

:

Erin Courtney: Yes.

418

:

Kris Harrington: Cool.

419

:

Very cool.

420

:

What about you all?

421

:

Well, I'm gonna ask Lisa, since

you are a longtime listener of

422

:

our show, what did you just learn?

423

:

Lisa Kenning: Well, what I have been

learning and I'm super excited about is

424

:

playing Mahjong, which is something I

was interested in for several years and

425

:

was hopeful I'd be able to join a group

or find someone who could teach me.

426

:

And for the last year, I, have been

playing in three different groups.

427

:

So one of them is.

428

:

A group, a big group of my friends, so

peers that are about my age and there

429

:

were a couple of their mothers who took

many months teaching us how to play.

430

:

And then there's another group,

that I play with my, husband's

431

:

mom and her sisters, and I call

that Mahjong with the aunties.

432

:

And then the third is a club of women

who are mostly in their eighties.

433

:

And I struggle to keep up with

them because they think so fast

434

:

and they're so competitive.

435

:

Oh, how fun.

436

:

I just, I love it.

437

:

I, I am still learning.

438

:

It's very complicated.

439

:

There are so many rules and every

single time we play, we're like, oh my

440

:

gosh, I didn't know about that role.

441

:

it's been a lot of fun

and good brain activity.

442

:

It keeps us sharp and, the, you know,

social connections, especially to

443

:

other women, I love the different.

444

:

ages and diverse backgrounds, and it's

like, it just brings us all together.

445

:

Kris Harrington: Oh, that's fun.

446

:

Are there groups all over

447

:

Lisa Kenning: Yes.

448

:

it's gaining popularity.

449

:

I'm hearing about more

people learning how to play.

450

:

Okay.

451

:

Erin Courtney: Fun.

452

:

Oh, that is so cool.

453

:

I just, I love that you're doing that

with three mentor groups going, right?

454

:

You're, you're gaining knowledge, not just

about Mahjong, but so many other, parts

455

:

of life probably from these, these ladies.

456

:

that's wonderful.

457

:

Lisa Kenning: Absolutely.

458

:

I feel like that goes along with

our discussion about mentoring.

459

:

Mm-hmm.

460

:

Because it really is kind of like a

good example of that us, you know,

461

:

woman helping women and the younger

generations wanting to learn and you

462

:

know, so I've started teaching my

daughters and their friends this summer

463

:

you guys are gonna, really spend time

with me and learn how to play this.

464

:

So, yeah, it's been great.

465

:

Kris Harrington: Oh, that'll be great.

466

:

For memories.

467

:

Don, what have you just learned?

468

:

Well, I don't know.

469

:

I Don't know how to play

Marjon, but my wife does with

470

:

a big group down in Florida.

471

:

Oh, cool.

472

:

well, you know, just learned,

is three months just enough?

473

:

Kris Harrington: Yes, just enough.

474

:

I think in the intro I mentioned

that, besides being general manager.

475

:

I'm really an account manager

more often than not, and thought

476

:

I was pretty good at sales.

477

:

we ended up hiring, you know,

we hired a, a truce, what we

478

:

called a hunter salesperson.

479

:

I've been spending a lot of time

with him in front of customers and

480

:

he has taught me so much in the, you

know, we've only started going out

481

:

on calls for about the last month.

482

:

Mm.

483

:

But I, you know, he is just,

he has, he is just dialed in.

484

:

and he is really helping me, you

know, gain confidence I wasn't used

485

:

to working at, you know, the VP levels

and the C level, and that's where

486

:

he starts and works his way down,

487

:

Offering that, you can never be

too old to learn something that

488

:

can help you out in your career.

489

:

Kris Harrington: Oh yeah.

490

:

That's right.

491

:

That's right.

492

:

So true, can you name one skill that

he has or that was different for you?

493

:

I'm curious When you're with a good

salesperson, it's almost amazing.

494

:

I'm curious what the skill is.

495

:

you know, I don't know if

I could pinpoint one thing.

496

:

he's just so confident and

always asks the right questions.

497

:

Kris Harrington: there you go.

498

:

I have a long way to go.

499

:

I mean, I'm still a understudy, but,

maybe we'll have a chat someday in the

500

:

future and I'll give you a better answer

501

:

Kris Harrington: Hey.

502

:

asking the right questions and

good questions I think is a

503

:

good answer to that for sure.

504

:

Totally.

505

:

And not

506

:

be, not be afraid to ask the question.

507

:

that's right.

508

:

When you think you know

the answer, so anyway.

509

:

Kris Harrington: Yeah.

510

:

Yeah.

511

:

Greg, how about you?

512

:

Is there something you just

learned that you'd like to share?

513

:

I.

514

:

Greg Milinger: Well, it's kinda off

topic, but it, when I retired, I started

515

:

getting really fascinated by electro mag

magnetism and just magnetism in general.

516

:

You know, I never studied that.

517

:

I was reading, about quantum

mechanics and all that.

518

:

And then I run across something

that was really interesting where,

519

:

you know, we're all made of atoms.

520

:

inside an atom, there is a

tremendous amount of empty space

521

:

and like our bodies, our 99.99999

522

:

empty space.

523

:

Is that fascinating?

524

:

Whoa.

525

:

Yes.

526

:

We're all just

527

:

Erin Courtney: AI of ourselves.

528

:

Now, this,

529

:

Greg Milinger: this is, this was even

more interesting if you took all of the

530

:

empty space out of all of us, it would

fit into the volume of a sugar cube.

531

:

can you believe that?

532

:

Look it up.

533

:

It'll blow you away.

534

:

Erin Courtney: makes you scratch your head

535

:

Greg Milinger: doesn't it?

536

:

Erin Courtney: look

537

:

Greg Milinger: it up on the internet.

538

:

I do that.

539

:

it'll just blow you away when

you start reading about it.

540

:

Give us a book to read on that

541

:

Greg Milinger: the

internet is a great source.

542

:

because there's different viewpoints

take a look at it sometime.

543

:

most of the books I recommend would

put you to sleep in two minutes.

544

:

Kris Harrington: sometimes

I need those books, so

545

:

it would work.

546

:

Scott.

547

:

what is something you just learned?

548

:

It's huge, but obvious on

a scale of measurement.

549

:

As a consultant, there's this

scale from fat and happy profits

550

:

to anorexic and unhappy profits.

551

:

And when you talk about, lean

manufacturing, continuous improvement,

552

:

MES systems, nobody knows what they

are when they're fat and happy,

553

:

but when they start to get lean.

554

:

then that's when they really wanna do

all the right things, they don't realize

555

:

all the money they left on the table

when they were fat and happy, they

556

:

could have been fatter and happier.

557

:

my big learning is don't wait.

558

:

Continuous improvement.

559

:

And the tools we talk about should be

in place everywhere at any time, not

560

:

just when you're in survival mode.

561

:

that's it.

562

:

Kris Harrington: Drop the mic on.

563

:

Continuous improvement Thank you, Scott.

564

:

That's great.

565

:

this has been wonderful.

566

:

Lisa, if people wanna connect

with you and the rest of the

567

:

team where's the best place

568

:

Lisa Kenning: LinkedIn is the best spot.

569

:

Kris Harrington: Alright.

570

:

Beautiful.

571

:

thank you all for joining us have

a fantastic day, and for everybody

572

:

listening, go out and make something.

573

:

Lisa Kenning: Thank you.

574

:

This wraps up today's broadcast.

575

:

If you're looking to shake up the

status quo at your organization

576

:

or just want to connect with

these broads, visit MFG broadcast.

577

:

Dot com.

578

:

Contact Lori Hebe for your strategic

digital marketing initiatives.

579

:

Contact Chris Harrington for OEM and

Aftermarket Digital Solutions, and contact

580

:

Aaron Courtney for web-based solutions

for your complex business problems.

581

:

We've got a great offer

specifically for our listeners.

582

:

You can find more information about the

offers and your hosts@mfgbroadcasts.com.

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About the Podcast

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a BROADcast for Manufacturers
The purpose of this show is to share knowledge, have fun and bring diverse, yet important topics in the manufacturing space to the forefront.

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About your hosts

Profile picture for Lori Highby

Lori Highby

Lori Highby is a podcast host, speaker, educator, and founder of Keystone Click, a strategic digital marketing agency. Using her vast multi-industry knowledge – gained from experience and education, She has the ability to see the potential of greatness within the already established good of a business. Through strategic actionable moves, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies to micro-business owners, to achieve their marketing goals.
Profile picture for Kristina Harrington

Kristina Harrington

Kris Harrington is the Chief Executive Officer of GenAlpha Technologies, where she drives innovation in the B2B space by enabling manufacturers and distributors to sell their equipment and parts online. With over 20 years of experience in enhancing customer experiences for aftersales and new equipment, Kris is a respected thought leader in digital transformation. She regularly shares her insights through speaking events, blogs, and webinars, championing the future of manufacturing and distribution.
Profile picture for Erin Courtenay

Erin Courtenay

Erin joined ABFM during her tenure in sales at a small business that served the manufacturing sector. It was there that she was introduced to the incredible diversity of people, processes, and products that make up manufacturing. Erin has held communications and marketing roles in a variety of sectors including nonprofits, beauty and wellness, and tech. Podcasting has become her true love, where she has made lifelong connections and learned enough to earn yet another degree.