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The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) is back! This is the first time that IMTS has been forced to go on hiatus since World War II. It’s taking place September 12–17 at McCormick Place in Chicago and will consist of 1.2 million square feet of exhibition space.  In this episode of MakingChips, Peter Eelman—the Chief Experience Officer at AMT—joins us to share what’s happening at...

We’ve all gone into plants that smell awful because they’re dealing with coolant problems. But that smell is a symptom of other, bigger problems. If you have a smelly shop, foggy and dirty windows, and gunk on your tables, you’ve got a coolant problem that’s creating an unhealthy environment for your team. Learn how to identify coolant problems and how to solve them in this episode of...

The key to being a good salesman is to add value wherever you can for your customers. I want to be able to talk with ZENGER’s customers about integrating their tooling management with their ERP system and why it can help them. That’s why, in this episode of MakingChips, Paul Van Metre comes back to share how tooling management works using ProShop ERP. Because if you’re not properly managing your...

Whether you rely on inbound marketing, outbound marketing, or a combination of both, sourcing new customers can be a hassle. But it’s how you grow your business, so you can’t give up. Thomas™, a Xometry company, is America’s #1 industrial sourcing platform and marketing powerhouse. It could also be your #1 driver of new customers. Thomas™ President Shawn Fitzgerald shares how in this episode of...

Why is a skills gap analysis helpful? How can it make your company more efficient? What does the process look like? In this episode of MakingChips, we define a seven-step process you can use to help you run a skills gap analysis on your manufacturing business. Special guest Crystal Van Vleet shares how she’s brought the process to life in her role with Advanced Machine & Engineering (and at...

What can you do to double the value of your manufacturing company and increase your likelihood of selling it exponentially? In this episode of MakingChips, Michael Watkins and David Capkovitz from EBITDA Growth Systems (EGS) share how they can help you increase your profitability and Paul Van Metre from ProShop ERP shares how he partners with EGS to bring value to his clients. They are all...

Many manufacturers are facing a common struggle: Their team members are retiring. Even worse, they’re struggling to replace them. Matt Carr—the President of Storch Products Co—found an ingenious way to solve the skills gap at his company by attracting talent from a local technical college. How? He shares a strategy that any manufacturing leader can adapt in this episode of MakingChips. After all,...

AS9100 is a standardized quality management system for the aerospace industry. If a manufacturer wants to work in this field, they have to be AS9100 certified. The credentialing process is difficult to achieve quickly. Integrating it into your quality management system (QMS) can be even more time-consuming. In this episode of MakingChips, special guest John Jones shares how he used ProShop to...

Do you struggle with any pet peeves? We’ve compiled a list of three sales and marketing tactics that people utilize that drive us crazy: misusing lead capture forms, cold calls, and spammy LinkedIn connections. But instead of just complaining about these things, we’re going to share what anyone in sales or marketing should do instead. There’s a right way—and most definitely a wrong way—to do it....

Gino Wickman and Jim Collins popularized the term, “Right people, right seat” in reference to getting the right employees in leadership positions. But what if we take that terminology and apply it to customers? How do you decide what type of customer is the right fit for your manufacturing business? What type of customer will be the most profitable for your business? Those are the questions that...

Do you struggle with time management? Do you find yourself overwhelmed and exhausted at the end of the week with an endless backlog of things to do? After a rough week of long workdays and back-to-back dinner meetings, I felt like a zombie. I thought it wise to dive into an episode about time management. So in this episode of MakingChips, Jason and I tackle mastering time management in three...

“King Richard” is a movie about Venus and Serena’s dad, Richard Williams. I remember watching their rise in tennis and was fascinated by this movie that followed their path to success. Their father was a large driving force behind their successful careers. So in this unique episode of MakingChips, we talk about 7 takeaways from King Richard and how they can be applied to the manufacturing world....