Manufacturing Happy Hour

Andres Naranjo sailed a race around the world, wrote Japan's digital agenda, and spent his sabbatical teaching himself AI from scratch.
This week Chris sits down with Andres, CEO of Software Toolbox, to hear some incredible life stories and dig into what bringing AI into the industrial world looks like right now.
Andres has lived a lot of lives as a consultant, entrepreneur, ocean racer and AI builder. He's pretty direct about why he walked away from consulting to pursue his current endeavors - the AI wave was moving far too fast to be on the side-lines of it.
There's also practical conversation here for anyone thinking about how to deploy AI on the plant floor, and Andres' breakdown of how to effectively train an agent.
In this episode, find out:
Why Andres left one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world to go build things himself
What sailing a race around the world taught him about data, analytics and machine learning
What the industrial tech stack of the future actually looks like and why it's simpler than anyone is making it sound
The difference between machine learning, generative AI and agentic AI and why confusing them is holding the industry back
Why the era of the dashboard is over and what should replace it
What an AI agent actually is, how you train one, and where on the plant floor you should be deploying it first
Why Andres bought Software Toolbox instead of building from scratch and the simple framework behind that decision
Why Andres moved back to Silicon Valley after Japan and what he saw happening in AI that made him think it was time to stop advising and start building

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
“AI is a salad bowl of technologies and almost always people conflate one with the other in really strange ways.” - Andres Naranjo, CEO of Software Toolbox
“ It is a wonderful time to build. It's probably the best time ever. I want it to be in it. I didn't want to be on the side-lines for it.” - Andres Naranjo, CEO of Software Toolbox
“There are many ways to lean in, and it's okay if there is some failure. Everything is a normal distribution. You’ve got to blow up rockets to land rockets on the moon.” - Andres Naranjo, CEO of Software Toolbox

Links & mentions:
Software Toolbox is a full-stack industrial AI company, delivering industrial connectivity software, data platforms, and AI agents that augment the people working in manufacturing and process industries.
Allie integrates intelligence into factory operations: learning from machines, sensors and systems to detect problems, recommend actions and coordinate responses in real time.

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

Your frontline team can only perform as well as the processes they're handed.
So why are so many leaders still blaming the wrong people instead of listening to the ones closest to the problem?
In this weeks’ episode Chris sits down with Jason Woodard, a 35-year manufacturing veteran, CEO of Geislinger Corporation, and author of Manufacturing Leadership That Works.
Jason gets pretty candid about what he's seen over the course of his career. We're talking a plant manager leaving nasty notes on dry-erase boards for exhausted frontline workers, and Jason himself rolling up his sleeves and coming in on a holiday weekend when the rest of the leadership team had plans.
Getting into the valuable stuff, Jason talks about what it takes to build trust with your team, holding the right people accountable, and why leading yourself should come before leading anyone else.
In this episode, find out:
Why blame culture in manufacturing is almost always directed at the wrong people
What Jason witnessed early in his career that shaped everything about how he leads today
What Jason's time as a journeyman maintenance mechanic on the night shift taught him about leadership that no management role ever could
What Geislinger Corporation actually makes and why it matters to critical infrastructure in the US
Why the higher you climb, the less you actually know about what's happening on your floor
How to build genuine trust with frontline workers without it feeling forced
What to do when an employee raises a problem you can't immediately fix
Why being great at the job you have today is the only path to the job you want tomorrow

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
“The higher I grow in my career, the more I realize that what I'm hearing as a leader is a little bit of the truth. And it's not because you're being lied to, it's just that it's being filtered up to you.” - Jason Woodard, Author and Geislinger CEO
I think most people understand that every single thing they want to be changed or fixed isn't going to be. But if they feel like they were at least heard and listened to, I think that's the most important part.” - Jason Woodard, Author and Geislinger CEO
”Rarely does politics come up, rarely does any of the divisive stuff come up. We're just showing up every day to solve problems together. In a good culture, the collaboration, no matter the background of the people, is there. - Jason Woodard, Author and Geislinger CEO

Links & mentions:
Geislinger Corporation develops and produces torsional vibration dampers, torsional elastic high damping couplings, composite couplings, composite shaftlines, and torsional vibration monitoring systems for engines and wind turbines
Manufacturing Leadership That Works: Proven Principles for Building Engaged Teams, Improving Performance, and Driving Results by Jason Woodard
Handmap Brewing, Battle Creek-based brewery, perfectly named for the state of Michigan

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

Growing your own machinists and orchestrating robots across four continents, is this what the future of manufacturing looks like?
This live episode from Hapa's Brewing in the Bay Area features two panels of people who have built careers at the intersection of mechatronics, automation, and industrial innovation.
First up, Vinod, Kevin, and Adam get into what it takes to build a skilled workforce from the ground up, talking about apprenticeships, college partnerships, and growing your own talent in-house.
Then we get into the bigger picture with our founder panel Kim, Glenn, Nick, and Florian on what Silicon Valley gets wrong about manufacturing, and what manufacturers are missing by not paying closer attention to what's being built there.
In this episode, find out:
How Vinod bootstrapped an automation company in the Bay Area while raising a family and why his wife had something to do with it
What Kevin learned from a 3-year German apprenticeship that he thinks more US manufacturers should be paying attention to
How Adam solved his machinist shortage by bringing the training programme in-house and partnering with a local college
How Kim thinks about leading companies through inflection points when there are no guardrails or safety nets
Why Glenn believes manufacturers who aren't paying attention to what's being built around them won't even know when it's too late
How Nick's B2C background completely changed the way he thinks about building software for frontline manufacturing workers
Why Florian ignored his investors and opened a public-facing robotics storefront on the main street of Mountain View

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
“You don't have that mechanical job anymore that's done by one person. You need support, whether it's software support or you need a robot at your side.” – Kevin Toomer, Product Manager at Sumitomo Drive Technologies
“In automation, you don't need a master's or a PhD to be successful. Just getting creative and having that experience in mechanical engineering really helped me in my career.” – Vinod Anandarajah, Co-Founder and CEO at Kanavu Automation
”In Silicon Valley, we tend to love disruption because to us it represents something new and something better. But when you get on a manufacturing floor, they tend to want predictability.” - Kim Losey, Founder and CEO at NextLine Group

Links & mentions:
Kanavu Automation, bringing value to manufacturing clients via a strategic focus on machine automation and robotics
MaintainX, empowering maintenance professionals to reduce unplanned equipment downtime and boost production capacity
NextLine Group, architecting what is next in robotics engineering
Sumitomo Drive Technologies, providing engineered solutions to industrial power transmission customers
Beluga Navigation Systems, building deep tech navigation solutions for vehicle and vessel navigation
InOrbit.AI, leading AI-powered robot orchestration platform, driving software-defined operations at scale
Hapa’s Brewing Company, craft brewery and taproom located in San Jose, CA

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

What if the biggest efficiency problem in your factory isn't your machines, it's the dead time you waste before you even get to one.
Workers queuing at ADP and ERP terminals every morning. A wing rib scrapped at the cost of $18,000 because the wrong work instruction was on screen. A program gone forever when the machinist who maintained it quietly for a decade retired to Poland. David witnessed all of these problems within his manufacturing acquisitions despite them having advanced tech for the time period.
Chris sits down with David Caputo, Co-Founder of Harmoni, to get into how his intelligent factory orchestration system connects machines, people, and data for true control across the shop floor.
Harmoni fills the gap in the renowned ISA-95 stack that most manufacturers never knew they were missing, supplementing human-intensive operations that make up 99% of the market.
Harmoni operates within three buckets with the aim of wasting less time and making less mistakes. The system is designed to cover all bases without interfering with the essential human input needed to fulfil complex tasks. David talks to Chris about the labor automation, process control, and observability that Harmoni brings to the factory floor.
In this episode, find out:
What factory orchestration is and why David sees it as a distinct category from existing tools
How David's experience acquiring and running four aerospace and defense manufacturers drove the creation of Harmoni
Why Harmoni's three pillars (labor automation, process control, and observability) address the ISA-95 gap that leaves most human-intensive factories underserved
How the no-titles, pods-based structure at Harmoni works and why David recommends it for companies under around 200 employees
What the Harmoni AI Lieutenant (HAL) does on the shop floor versus in the office, and why shop floor AI requires both context and a delivery mechanism to be useful
Where David sees the 297,000 US manufacturers under 500 employees needing to compete in a world of autonomous factories and vertically integrated supply chains
Why David advises manufacturers to ask one question before any software investment: how will this tool change what happens on my shop floor

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
"What Harmoni's built is a new category of technology. We call this factory orchestration, and there's a very simple goal: waste less time and make fewer mistakes." - David Caputo
“Simply having indicator lights to say whether a machine's running is not telling you the full picture. A machine could be running but running very inefficiently. We're giving you the information you need and allowing you to manage your factory in real time.” - David Caputo
“Somehow you have to produce more with less, all in the face of autonomous competition and vertically integrated supply chains. Pretty tough position for the 300,000 manufacturers in this country.” - David Caputo

Links & mentions:
Harmoni.io, bringing together data from operators, machines, and your shop floor software, all in real-time, to help managers make decisions and spot trends quickly
Greenwich Street Tavern, a different tavern experience that takes a traditional American pub fare menu to the next level located in Tribeca in NYC

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

What happens when manufacturers stop competing for talent and start working together to develop it?
In this special LIVE episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour, Chris travels to Wausau, Wisconsin for a collaboration with the Central Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance (CWIMA) to explore how manufacturers across the region are working together to strengthen workforce development, accelerate innovation, and build a thriving manufacturing ecosystem.
The discussion features five manufacturing leaders representing a wide range of industries:
Jim Waldron, President of Wausau Tile
John Peterson, Owner & CEO of Schuette Metals
Scott Mattmiller, Greenheck Group
Laura Strek, President of Imperial Industries
Tom Felch, J&D Tube Benders

Together, they discuss everything from workforce shortages and apprenticeship programs to automation, mentorship, community engagement, and why collaboration may be the biggest competitive advantage a manufacturing region can have.
Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.