Lean Built: Manufacturing Freedom Henry Holsters and Pierson Workholding

Jay and Andrew discuss the benefits and dangers of allowing people to buy on a payment plan, nurturing good relationships with vendors, reevaluating the company after the loss of a key employee, job prioritization, custom software, and calculating true cost. Additionally, they pose an important question: Does your ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system truly work for you?"

Should Andrew buy a lathe? This is the question of the hour, leading to all sorts of useful discussions, such as ... do you spend money on a crummy machine just to learn? Or buy your good one first? If you have a machine, will the work come? What happens if getting use out of a machine relies on one rockstar employee? How do you play the odds in a small business? How do you avoid "monkey like shiny" syndrome? What makes a visionary, and why do Jay and Andrew both kind of hate the word? Would either of them ever hire a CEO?

Jay and Andrew talk 3D printers, color matching vs color coding, after-market mods, and ponder what it would take to sell their companies and start from scratch with what they know now.

Andrew is putting off buying a lathe, which leads to a discussion of what to prioritize in buying machines, returns and exchanges, how Amazon makes it easier for people to rip you off, and more.

Andrew and Jay talk about teamwork, pushing a machine until you break it (to learn how far you can push it), onboarding new vendors (plus vendor management in general), over-communicating as a violation of lean principles, organizational clarity, and more.
Books mentioned:
The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni

Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters

Jay and Andrew talk about Jay's new Zeiss CMM, how to not burn up somebody's goodwill, documenting processes, face to face versus shoulder to shoulder versus face to screen, the high cost of small errors, and the dangers of automation. Plus Jay pushes back on whether Andrew should get a lathe ... side quests are dangerous!