Manufacturing Impact

PJ Wallbank Springs & Wallbank Industrial
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We believe the best way to create impact that lasts is by helping people grow. Manufacturing Impact is about building better people, better leaders, better businesses, and ultimately, better lives through conversations with people who are doing the work in manufacturing. Join Brandon Bartneck, VP at Wallbank Industrial and PJ Wallbank Springs as he explores the ideas, challenges, and opportunities for manufacturing impact. PJ Wallbank Springs: https://pjws.com/ Wallbank Industrial: https://wallbankindustrial.com/

  1. Nov 4

    #14: Why Don't More People Choose Manufacturing?

    Brandon Bartneck and Chris Wallbank ask why so many talented people overlook careers in manufacturing. They discuss why the industry perception matters, the pull of talent to software and consulting industries, and why the work is an acquired taste. They also share their experiences on how manufacturing offers unusually direct ways to make a meaningful, positive impact. Key takeaways: The talent shortage is largely a perception problem. Many people see manufacturing as a fallback, not a first choice.Manufacturing is complex and demanding, but how demanding depends on the systems and people in place.Appreciating manufacturing is an acquired taste. It takes time, curiosity, and exposure to see what makes each product and process challenging.Smaller and mid-sized plants give people ownership, variety, and a direct impact on the business and the people in it.Meaningful impact comes from staying in the work for months and years, not from advising from the outside.Leadership attitude and culture decide whether a plant is a place to make a difference.Separating design from production slows learning and weakens long-term competitiveness.Timestamps: (0:00) – Welcome and the podcast's focus: creating meaningful impact through manufacturing (1:28) – The 2023 NAM Outlook survey: 71% of manufacturers struggle to attract and retain employees (2:26) – Production floor vs. professional staff: why neither group tends to choose manufacturing (4:42) – The pull of software and "bits and bytes" careers, and manufacturing's "dirty and simple" image (6:24) – Brandon's path: his engineering friends went to consulting, finance, and tech (8:52) – The convenience trap, and why advising from the outside isn't the same as doing the work (10:15) – Opportunity in a mid-sized company: wear many hats and think like an owner (12:13) – Why a spring plant is as interesting as manufacturing phones (14:50) – Why manufacturing is hard to appreciate without experience (17:45) – Brandon's early learning curve at the plant, and building the skill to ask the right questions (19:38) – Why a Boeing 787 or an engine is easy to be awed by, and a spring isn't (23:19) – What makes each plant's "spark of joy" different: scale, speed, complexity, or materials (25:26) – The opportunity for impact: stable, well-paid jobs and community and cultural effects (27:10) – Leadership and the right environment (29:05) – The plant manager as head coach, and parallels with Nick Saban's approach to culture (32:46) – The decades of offshoring production and decoupling it from design (34:05) – Subsidies, competing nations, and long-term macro interests (35:06) – Why separating product from process slows learning and innovation (36:30) – Closing thoughts: the tide is turning Connect with Brandon Bartneck Follow Manufacturing Impact

  2. Oct 21

    #13: How Internships Can Help Build Better Organizations

    A successful engineering internship should help a student grow, produce meaningful work for the business, and clarify for the intern and employer whether there’s a future together. In this solo episode, Brandon Bartneck, VP of Engineering, shares how PJ Wallbank Springs has built its Intern Academy around those objectives. He explains how early assignments reveal development needs, why meaningful responsibility requires coaching, and what leaders need to prepare before an intern arrives. The same principles offer a practical way to think about developing people throughout an organization. Key Topics: Defining success for the student and the organizationRecruiting for learning potential and the demands of your environmentSetting clear expectations before the internship beginsUsing early assignments and short feedback loops to guide developmentChoosing meaningful projects and providing technical and cross-functional mentorshipGiving candid feedback while there’s time to apply itHelping interns develop communication, planning, and change leadership skillsConnecting the internship experience to future full-time opportunitiesTimestamps (00:00) - Intro (02:46) - The three goals of an effective internship program (06:16) - Be honest about the environment interns are joining (07:40) - Define the ideal intern profile: hungry, humble, smart (08:39) - Set expectations before day one (09:04) - Why onboarding has to happen fast (10:29) - Don’t use a one-size-fits-all training approach (11:48) - Quick assignments reveal real strengths and gaps (13:15) - Give interns hard problems with real support (14:11) - How mentor structure and check-ins support growth (15:13) - Reflection, midpoint feedback, and candid coaching (17:34) - Teaching softer skills like planning and prioritization (18:40) - End-of-term reviews and future-fit conversations (19:38) - The importance of the next step after internships Connect with Brandon Bartneck Follow Manufacturing Impact

  3. Oct 7

    #12: How People Grow Through Work

    Brandon Bartneck, Host and VP of Engineering at PJ Wallbank Springs, breaks down the middle step of his three-part framework for maximizing impact: 1. identify your unique gifts and talents, 2. develop those gifts and talents, and 3. deploy your gifts and talents to create impact. This solo episode focuses on the often overlooked work of development and why it matters just as much as raw talent or experience. Brandon shares what he believes are five conditions necessary for growth and then shows how it plays out in both football and a professional engineering leadership role. The episode is especially useful for anyone trying to improve themselves, lead a team, or build a culture where people actually get better. Key topics Why experience alone doesn’t guarantee growthFive conditions for individual growth and developmentThe difference between a useful stretch and a task someone isn’t ready to handleWhat Brandon had to learn when he began leading the engineering functionHow candor makes feedback and development possibleWhy reflection has to lead to a change in how you workHow leaders can spot the next opportunity for someone to growTimestamps (00:00) - Introducing the three-part impact framework: identify, develop, deploy (00:58) - Why development is often misunderstood as automatic experience (01:54) - Quality practice matters more than simple repetition (02:23) - Capability compounds and weak development creates long-term drag (02:50) - The five conditions for individual development (03:19) - Ownership: your development is your responsibility (03:49) - Why real growth requires hard things (04:17) - Honesty and candor about success, failure, and current capability (05:14) - Reflection and learning as a repeating feedback loop (05:44) - Why environment and support shape development outcomes (07:09) - Football as a clear example of development in action (10:02) - Translating feedback into specific skill work (11:27) - Coaches and culture as force multipliers for growth (12:33) - Taking over an engineering function and facing a steep learning curve (13:32) - Identifying gaps in product knowledge, leadership, and systems thinking (15:51) - Learning through textbooks, formulas, observation, and expert input (17:17) - Applying lessons outside the office through ongoing reflection (19:41) - Why most people struggle with ownership, candor, and intentional growth (22:23) - How leaders can create a development environment for others (23:17) - Resources, nudges, and human check-ins as leadership tools (24:45) - Closing reminder to take personal development seriously Connect with Brandon Bartneck Follow Manufacturing Impact

  4. Sep 23

    #11: Why Your Team Keeps Missing the Root Cause

    In this continued conversation, Tom Foster and Brandon Bartneck apply Elliott Jaques’s time-span framework to a problem manufacturing leaders know well which is recurring issues that never seem to reach root cause. Tom distinguishes different levels of problem solving such as trial and error, documented best practices, and root-cause analysis. Each is useful for a different kind of problem. He also explains why teaching someone an A3, 8D, or another root-cause process doesn’t guarantee they’ll use cause-and-effect reasoning when the pressure is on. Brandon tests the framework against the work of an engineering leader. A role with a relatively small team can still carry significant complexity when the leader must rebuild technical knowledge, resolve systemic equipment problems, and translate unclear customer needs into new capabilities. Tom and Brandon also address the practical implication for hiring and organizational design and encourage leaders to define the decisions, problems, outcomes, and time horizon a role will own before evaluating the candidate. Key Topics: How problem-solving methods change as the complexity of the work increasesWhere trial and error and documented best practices are effectiveWhy root-cause training may break down under pressureThe role of cause-and-effect reasoning in solving unfamiliar problemsHow ambiguity increases the complexity of engineering leadershipWhy team size can be a poor measure of a role’s difficultyWhat happens when someone’s capability doesn’t match the workDefining the decisions and problems in a role before hiring Timestamps: (00:00) - Applying time-span thinking to recurring production and quality problems (02:47) - The five levels of work and their time horizons (05:49) - Trial and error, best practices, and root-cause analysis (08:07) - The limits of teaching root-cause tools (09:40) - Why people default to familiar methods under pressure (15:42) - Scoping the real complexity of an engineering leader role (18:54) - Turning unclear customer needs into a testable solution (22:01) - What a capability mismatch looks like during a project (25:26) - Detecting a mismatch before the project fails (27:27) - How organizational design affects culture and performance (28:26) - Defining the work before hiring Connect with Tom Foster https://managementblog.org/ https://timespan101.com/ Connect with Brandon Bartneck Follow Manufacturing Impact

  5. Sep 16

    #10: When Strong Performers Struggle in Bigger Roles

    In this episode, Tom Foster, Owner of Foster Learning Corporation, joins Brandon Bartneck to explain why someone can perform well in one role and struggle when the work becomes larger, longer-term, or more ambiguous. Drawing on Elliott Jaques’ research, Tom introduces four factors that influence performance: required behaviors, interest and passion for the work, skill, and capability. He explains why training can address a skill gap while leaving other causes of underperformance unresolved. Tom also introduces time span as a way to understand capability. As work extends further into the future, leaders have to make decisions with less complete information, anticipate what could go wrong, and create alternate paths without waiting for someone else to direct each step. This is the first of a two-part conversation with Tom. It establishes the framework for a continued discussion about matching people to work and applying the concepts across different levels of a manufacturing organization. Key topics: Why strong performance in one role may not predict success in anotherThe Peter Principle and the multiple causes of underperformanceFour factors behind performance: required behaviors, interest and passion, skill, and capabilityThe difference between technical knowledge and practiced executionWhy additional training cannot resolve every performance gapHow time span connects capability to the complexity of a roleMaking long-term decisions under uncertainty and ambiguityThe difference between working independently and working with close directionWhy executives and production teams naturally operate across different time horizons Timestamps: (00:00) - Introduction to Tom Foster and the practical value of his work (01:34) - The research behind the conversation (02:49) - Why successful employees can struggle after moving into a new role (03:29) - The Peter Principle and the causes of underperformance (11:40) - Distinguishing motivation, skill, and capability (13:02) - Understanding capability through time span (17:53) - Managing long-term work under uncertainty (19:15) - The difference between autonomy and close oversight (19:40) - Working into the future without direction (23:26) - How managerial levels expand the context of the work (24:15) - Applying time span to the future of a manufacturing system (27:02) - Why executives and production teams see different parts of the same problem (29:01) - How the application and consequences change the work required Connect with Tom Foster Connect with Brandon Bartneck Follow Manufacturing Impact

  6. Sep 9

    #9: Why Telling People What to Do Isn't Coaching

    In this episode, Tracey Fletcher, Chief People Officer at PJ Wallbank Springs and Wallbank Industrial, joins to explore why telling people what to do isn't coaching. Tracey shares a 4-step framework that leaders can using between setting expectations and checking results to move from intention to actual behavior change. This includes communicating what needs to happen, modeling what good looks like, staying close to support while the person practices, and reinforcing progress. This conversation is especially useful for leaders who want better performance from their team without falling into the trap of either micromanaging or simply delegating and hoping for the best. Key topics: Why clear instructions alone rarely create lasting behavior changeCoaching for business performance while helping the person growBuilding the foundation for candid coaching through care, curiosity, trust, and relationshipTracey’s four-part coaching sequence: Tell me. Show me. Help me. Recognize me.How experienced leaders can model their thinking without taking ownership of the work backUsing in-the-moment feedback and practice to help a new behavior take holdLetting the employee reflect first so they strengthen their own judgment and self-awarenessWhy leaders should examine the coaching process when the expected behavior does not change Timestamps: (00:00) Welcome (00:19) Why leadership requires coaching (01:14) Coaching for performance and the person behind the performance (03:57) Building the foundation through care, curiosity, and relationship (05:15) Why trust, vulnerability, and candor matter (07:13) Tell me. Show me. Help me. Recognize me. (11:17) The sports analogy: instruction cannot replace supported practice (12:52) Moving from task-level direction to active coaching (16:39) Modeling what good looks like without taking the work back (19:12) Why expertise makes it easy to forget what learning feels like (20:44) Applying the coaching sequence to performance conversations (25:17) Letting the employee reflect before the leader gives feedback (27:50) Building skills that serve the person beyond one result (29:42) Why coaching is foundational, demanding, and worth the effort (30:26) Looking in the mirror when behavior does not change Brandon Bartneck Tracey Fletcher Manufacturing Impact

  7. Aug 26

    #8: Leading a Team That Performs Without You

    In this episode, Aaron Hensler, Senior Director and Chief Engineer for Commercial Vans at Rivian, shares how leaders create clarity in complex environments and build teams that continue performing after they step away. Aaron draws from his experience in organizations ranging from a 150-person prototype manufacturer to General Motors and Rivian. Key topics The difference between status-driven leadership and impact-driven leadership.Why clarity matters most when complexity is highest, and why leaders must reduce anxiety by creating understanding and direction.The value of being able to zoom in and out between strategic leadership and hands-on problem solving on the floor.How humility and servant leadership show up in practice, including helping with service parts and being willing to do the urgent work when needed.Practical framework for thinking in swim lanes, mapping how work moves across people and functions so leaders can understand where to deploy resources.Exploring company size and whether impact comes more from fit or from adaptability, using examples from small prototype companies, Rivian, and General Motors.Measuring impact by what remains after stepping away as a leader. Timestamps (00:00) - Introducing Aaron Hensler (01:22) - Why this kind of work is worth a career (03:31) - Leaving GM for Rivian and choosing growth over status (04:31) - Why clarity is essential in complex leadership (06:37) - The value of being useful in high-performing teams (07:36) - Different skills matter on the same team (09:44) - Balancing tactical problem solving with strategic leadership (10:21) - Humility and servant leadership on the floor (11:11) - Efficiency versus effectiveness in leadership (12:07) - Scaling through people versus scaling through systems (13:26) - The swim lanes framework for cross-functional leadership (15:36) - The danger of acting before understanding the problem (16:02) - Mapping silos and decision flow at GM before making changes (17:22) - What impact looks like across different company sizes (18:49) - Why small, mid-size, and large companies each have different leadership challenges (20:09) - The aircraft carrier versus speedboat analogy for organizational change (23:25) - Measuring success by what you can control (24:21) - Coaching as a way to build growth mindset and team confidence (25:27) - Matching leadership style to each person’s needs (26:28) - There is no single right answer in leadership (28:00) - Setting specific goals and adjusting them as you learn (30:25) - Aaron’s definition of lasting impact (31:25) - The most rewarding impact is when the team excels without you Connect with Aaron Hensler Connect with Brandon Bartneck Follow Manufacturing Impact

  8. Aug 19

    #7: People & Performance Are Not Competing Priorities

    In this episode, Brandon Bartneck and Chris Wallbank, CEO of Wallbank Industrial and PJ Wallbank Springs, discuss why strong financial performance and a people-centered culture are not in conflict, but instead reinforce each other. Key topics People and performance are not tradeoffs. The best organizations do both and get a flywheel effect from it.High performers want to work with other high performers, and that raises the standard across the business.Cohesive teams create energy, fulfillment, and better execution, while poor teams drain morale fast.Financial performance gives an organization the right to invest in their people.Leaders have a responsibility to build cost structures that can survive downturns, not just optimize for the next quarter.Competitive advantage only counts if it shows up in the P&L.Vertical integration is not automatically a strength if it worsens capital structure or cost structure.Engineering leaders need to think like business owners, not just function owners, and connect product and process decisions to customer value.People are the source of competitive advantage, and competitive advantage is what enables reinvestment in people. Timestamps (00:00) Chris Wallbank returns to discuss people and performance (00:46) Why caring about people and caring about performance are not opposites (02:01) How team performance affects energy, mastery, and business outcomes (02:59) High performers expect to work with other high performers (04:05) Moving from silos to teams on the production floor (05:33) Why people want to be part of something good or great (06:42) Why financial stability matters for meaningful impact (07:31) Caring for people means helping them grow professionally (08:18) Why organizations must earn the right to invest in employees (10:16) Profitability as the decision point for reinvestment versus extraction (11:30) Why some business models cannot credibly promise no layoffs (12:44) Leadership responsibility to build resilience before a downturn (13:45) Quarter-to-quarter thinking versus long-term stewardship (17:17) Competitive advantage as sustainable differentiation (19:35) Understanding Michael Porter and practical competitive analysis (20:23) Why advantage must show up in the P&L (22:16) The limits of vertical integration as a strategy (24:43) What competitive advantage means for functional leaders (25:27) Engineering as the heartbeat of the organization (26:54) Engineering leaders as enterprise-centric, not function-centric (27:53) Differentiation must create customer value or it fails (28:25) Thinking like a business owner in product development (29:23) Growth is easier when you are not trying to differentiate (30:09) Why undifferentiated product lines are dangerous for jobs (31:23) The flywheel between people, performance, and competitive advantage (32:25) Why this topic matters for any purpose-driven organization Connect with Chris Wallbank Connect with Brandon Bartneck Manufacturing Impact

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5
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About

We believe the best way to create impact that lasts is by helping people grow. Manufacturing Impact is about building better people, better leaders, better businesses, and ultimately, better lives through conversations with people who are doing the work in manufacturing. Join Brandon Bartneck, VP at Wallbank Industrial and PJ Wallbank Springs as he explores the ideas, challenges, and opportunities for manufacturing impact. PJ Wallbank Springs: https://pjws.com/ Wallbank Industrial: https://wallbankindustrial.com/

Information

  • Creator
    PJ Wallbank Springs & Wallbank Industrial
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 PJ Wallbank Springs & Wallbank Industrial
  • Show Website
    Manufacturing Impact