Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Art Thomas

Curt Anderson  00:01

Hey Damon Happy Monday, dude.

Damon Pistulka  00:03

Hi Curt. How are you doing today?

Curt Anderson  00:05

Oh my goodness gracious. If I was any better you might have to call 911 man it is just such a wonderful day today. It’s chilly outside but man is it hot and just oh my goodness it’s sizzling here I am. David Are you sitting down?

Damon Pistulka  00:21

Sitting down?

Curt Anderson  00:22

Did you get a good night’s sleep? Did

Damon Pistulka  00:23

you did? I did. Alright guys,

Curt Anderson  00:26

let’s let’s let’s just dive right in. So hey, I want to introduce my dear friend, art Thomas art from the Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership for the Russell program, which is called the MEP. So are happy Monday. How are you doing?

Art Thomas  00:38

Morning? Good afternoon. I’m doing great. Don’t Awesome. Well, awesome.

Curt Anderson  00:43

My wonderful for Thank you. I know you’re super busy guys. You’re just telling us before we went online, you guys are just cranking at the Purdue MEP. And so I know how super busy you are. We’re gonna dive right in. So we have lots of cover. I’ve had the honor privilege, you and I’ve worked together on a number of fun things and we become fast friends. So hey, I’ve got before we dive into this whole MEP thing and Purdue and all that good stuff. I have a I have a little question for you ready? Are you ready for this one? You’re ready to get a good night’s sleep. Good rest over the weekend. Okay, ready? All right. All right. When you were a little guy growing up when you were a little guy growing up? Who was your hero? Who was your hero? When you were little?

Art Thomas  01:27

I was my dad for sure.

Curt Anderson  01:29

Oh, awesome. What’s dad’s name?

Art Thomas  01:32

My dad’s name was the same as my name, Arthur Thomas. So but because my mom got

Curt Anderson  01:38

1. Okay, awesome. So let’s, let’s hear about Dad.

Art Thomas  01:43

Um, well, first of all, my dad was a minister since he was 15. And, but he was a businessman. And he started 13 businesses in his lifetime. Nine of which are still running today would really quite an accomplishment not I’m not part of any of them. But they’re still running today. And most of them are still under the same name. He was traveled the world. He was in. He preached in all 50 states except Hawaii. Wow. And he also preached in 70 foreign countries. So I think he was in 140 different countries. And I was a world traveler and had a lot of stories took me on a couple of the last ones before he passed away. So I got some of that. But yeah, so he was amazing, man. And I’ve always wondered how in the world he got it all done, the older I get. I don’t know how he did it, but

02:42

no doubt. So,

Curt Anderson  02:44

man, all right. Let’s uncover a few things there. Right. What do you think, Damon?

Damon Pistulka  02:50

I’m just doing the math in my head. Right? Everywhere. But uh, why? And then 140 countries. Please go that’s like, Okay, you got 140 countries plus 50. Right. So 190 places to go. And you only got so many years, you’re moving.

Art Thomas  03:11

He died when he was 6060.

Curt Anderson  03:14

Me accomplish all that in 60 years.

Art Thomas  03:18

He told me on that when I went into him because I had to go tell him yeah, you probably not gonna make it, of course, a lot harder than that. But he told me when I told him that he told me he said, I have been blessed beyond measure because many people they have money when they get old. And then they’re too old to go enjoy it. And he said I was blessed because I had money when I was young. And so I got to do way more than most people do that live a lot longer lifespan. Wow. And yeah, so me, he would travel. Me It was literally, I remember Stan my grandma’s for eight weeks at a time while he was gone. So yeah, he did a lot of traveling. Yeah, that is

Curt Anderson  04:02

intense. Alright, so a bunch of things uncover right there. So first off, what a bad in average, nine businesses out of 13 in Daymond. We talked about this all the time when you know, most business what four out of five fail in the first five years right and then just perpetuates from there. So aren’t for the fact that your dad had nine successful businesses out of the 13. And in he might have been 13 for 13. But nine are still still going today and traveled to 140 countries. What were some of the countries that you traveled with that?

Art Thomas  04:35

I’ve been to. I’ve been over all over the Middle East. My dad went there 13 times in his life. I went once and so but in that in that particular trip that he took me with we were in Holland course Egypt, Jordan, Israel And I think that was pretty much it on that trip and ice three days. So that is awesome. All

Curt Anderson  05:08

right, so dad hit 140 countries, great entrepreneurship, talk to the Dad, how did that entrepreneurship bug, that entrepreneurial spirit? How did that impact you?

Art Thomas  05:17

I look, I really love the entrepreneurial idea. I really did. And I have an I’ve, over my lifetime, I’ve probably started 30 businesses, and none of them were. One of the things that that he had that I had to come to terms with that I didn’t have that was vision. I’ve always had a really high respect for entrepreneurs because of what they go through to get a company running. Many people never realize because maybe by the time they come along, the business is doing great, and they just don’t see it. But the other thing that many entrepreneurs have is they have a vision. You know, my dad, one of the businesses started was a carwash. And you gotta remember that was in 1967, he started an automatic carwash. Nice, that business is still running today. But when he built it, there hadn’t nobody needed her in like three counties, nobody had ever heard of an automatic car wash, right. And so that’s the kinds of things he did, he started, like, you know, and modern home living was what he called it. But this is back in the would have been in the early 70s, he started doing the pre manufactured housing. And again, nobody had ever heard of it. So he just had a vision for those things. And I had to come to terms that that was what I lacked. And so I’ve spent my career trying to help the entrepreneur, because I can bring skills and talents, right, but I usually I can take their vision and and usually run with it, but I have a hard time developing my own vision. So well, that’s, I just had to realize I didn’t have that. So yeah,

Curt Anderson  07:03

well, you know, what we all were in one way or another we are all blessed with our God given talents. And so you know, dad had his you have yours, everybody has, you know, a little bit different. And so, you know, it’s fascinating seeing how family, you know how different the dynamic is, but let’s say it into you, passionate, passionate, just dedicated your life, your career to helping us manufacturing. And boy, we really salute you on this, you know, and so Damon some of the titles that that art has carried, you know, I know, so maybe didn’t have the entrepreneurial of, you know, spirit or DNA in your in your blood. But But you’ve been a quality manager, manufacturing manager, plant superintendent productivities, supervisor, productivity improvement specialists, Director of Operations and VP of operations. So I think you’ve worn quite a few different hats and climbed a ladder, helping different folks are, what was it about manufacturing that really just lit the fire under you and that you decided to bring your talents into the manufacturing world?

Art Thomas  08:02

Well, I mean, you know, when I was 18, and I got into manufacturing, my first job was a janitor, literally a janitor. And but what I, what I started realizing was that, at the core of everything that happens, somebody has to make something there. It’s it’s like the beginning of, of the economics, right? I mean, if you don’t, if nobody makes anything, nothing happens. Like even when you sell service, you’re simply servicing something that somebody made or started. And so the, it just was exciting to me that even at a young age, I started realizing, man, this manufacturing thing is where, and I loved innovation, even though I’m you know, I’m probably not the best. I love the ideas, the things that would come out of it, improvements. I mean, it was amazing. You know, my first job was in a lock manufacturing company, and very popular today. They’re, they’re still running under a different name, but they’re still running. But it was, I mean, just the creativity. Going back to that of the figure eight core, and you look today and figure eight cores, like oh, that’s normal. Well, it wasn’t, you know, and somebody came up with that idea. So it really intrigued me I was I was fortunate to work at that company as my first company. And once I got started it just I just this is what I’ve done so since 18 I’ve never worked anywhere else but manufacturing. Well,

Curt Anderson  09:35

I absolutely love it so guys, you’re just joining us we are here with art Thomas, our good buddy from the Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the MEP, art now you’re a father of five and so, you know, big illustrious career in manufacturing, playing, you know, playing dad, all sorts of wonderful things. Let’s tie it in as you were kind of climbing that ladder doing different jobs, different roles and like really climbing each step of the way, talk about like some of the challenges that you face throughout your career. It is how your your quest to just keep improving and keep improving the place that you worked, kind of let’s let’s go through a little bit of your career there.

Art Thomas  10:12

So, you know, my first, my first job out of janitorial was a driver. So I would drive around and pick up parts for, you know, to service the equipment and deliver things, whatever. And I did that for a couple years. But my next job was an inspector on third shift the process inspector, and I had no education background, I had a GED, and that was it. So in 1994, I started college in engineering school. At that time, I had three kids, it took me 15 years to graduate with my engineering degree. And I didn’t, it wasn’t the technical side, it was the theory side. Yep. And so very difficult for me, took me 15 years, but I finally made it and graduated. So by the time I graduated five kids, so on a personal side, there was continuous improvement for 15 years. I mean, every, you know, I basically was in school three to four nights a week, what summers whatever. So, on a personal end, that was continuous improvement, but I will tell you what, a couple of things that did that. Even though that was not I wouldn’t recommend that route to to young people. One of the things that did for me is all of my children, got to see dad going to school. Yeah. And really putting myself out there, because I was all almost always the oldest one in the class. Yeah. They saw me struggle, they saw me, you know, go through all this. And I really didn’t think about it at the time, because, you know, I was too busy trying to get through. But that really set a standard for my my children, I’ve never had to really encourage them to go to college, because they just, they just seen the benefits of what, you know, dad believed in it that strongly that he would spend 15 years trying to do it. So personally, that would be my continuous improvement. But it processes overall. That’s the one area where I feel like, I got that skill set. I don’t know if I got it from my dad, but I, you know, I’m just a natural, I love looking for opportunities. And I think the big thing is, is taking those huge projects, whatever it may be the you know, the goal, and really breaking that down into what can I do today? What can I do tomorrow, and stretching that and putting it together so that every day you’re taking a bite towards that, whatever that goal is. And so, and part of that was me to where you know, when you go when you go into college, my first class going to Purdue was math one, they don’t even offer it anymore, because you have to go to Ivy Tech to get that level of math. So I had to go through five math classes before any of them qualify for engineering. So I learned to take that big project right? And just see the next thing and not so much focus on the end goal. Just take the next thing you can do and do it. I’ll tell you all right,

Curt Anderson  13:21

man, what Damon man are you just fired up right now. I just want to cover a few things here guys, and so good. You can drop us a note, let us know I see Alan’s here today, Alan, Happy Monday to you my friend, drop us a note. Let us know that you’re out there. We encourage you connect with connect with our on LinkedIn. First off. Secondly, if you’re coming to us from Indiana boy, you definitely want to if you’re a manufacturer, you definitely want to connect with art and the team at the Purdue MEP. If you’re coming to us from another state or outside of Indiana, connect with your local MEP. We’re going to be diving into that in a minute. But David a couple of things here, you know, dropped the mic and a few comments that you just you just laid out here. You know, number one, what an inspiration and what a role model that you laid just the sheer persistence and determination to grind. 15 years, you know, Daymond both of our mothers went back to college later in life. I vividly remember my mom going to college and she went off got her Bachelor’s got her Master’s, your mom got her PhD, when we were adults, and just what an inspiration to have have parents that are out there. So we commend you and we salute you for what you cool what you did. And you know what I want to the comments that I want to repeat here looking for opportunities. What can I do today? Just what can I do today? And you know, if you guys are out there, whatever, if there’s a carrot in front of you, whether it’s a college degree, a business, something personal, and it just seems so far out there, you take a you take a page out of arts book, you just grind at it one day at a time, and you get that bachelor’s degree man so hey, how about a round Applause for

Damon Pistulka  15:02

it’s just a little bit man, it adds up so much that little bit every day like you did for 15 years. You got a degree out of it and you know, it some days you wake up doesn’t look like you did anything yesterday, but it does it is you’re always moving. And in manufacturing, that’s so key. Because a lot of times, you know, the big, the big super improvements, those are done. We’re refining and refining and refining, and getting better and better.

Art Thomas  15:27

Yeah, I always tell people when they call when they call us look, if it’s if it was easy, you guys have already done it, right? I mean, you ain’t calling us to do something easy. You don’t need, you don’t need anybody with a lot of skill sets to do things that are easy. That’s

Curt Anderson  15:44

right, that’s right, you were not reaching out to Purdue for the easy button, you know, and but the thing is, you guys bring the easy button to the client. So let’s let’s dive in there. Man, I just I can’t tell you how much. I had immense respect for you prior to this call. And I just can’t tell you, you know, just don’t even think of the kids sitting there watching dad at the kitchen table. Or maybe you know, the kids are out playing and dad’s doing a paper, a homework assignment studying for the big exam the next day, and just really laying that groundwork. And you just as a parent, you sometimes don’t realize that your kids are just they’re sponges, watching everything that you’re doing. And so I’m just so inspired by that. Let’s go here are for folks out there that are not familiar with the M E. P, we’re going to dive into Purdue let’s start with what is the MEP network? Who in what is the Manufacturing Extension Partnership?

Art Thomas  16:30

Yeah, so the MEP network is really partially funded by NIST. And it was started by NIST. It’s it’s, which is part of the Department of Commerce. And so the NIST is National Institute of Standards and Technology. And so that’s the group that manages the MEP network. There’s one in every state, and there’s one in Puerto Rico, some states have multiple ones, but there’s a parent in that in that state. So some states may have up to seven or nine, something like that, Texas, California, there’s other states that have multiples. For the state of Indiana, there’s just one and that is Purdue. And the whole mission of the MVP network is to help small to medium manufacturers, become more profitable, find new opportunities, develop, you know, processes, you know, find new markets, whatever it may be that to help that company within the state to really gain, profit, profit sharing, and whatever else they’re doing, right, just help them be successful. So we’re strictly once a strictly but we mainly work with small and medium manufacturers.

Curt Anderson  17:50

Yeah, that’s fantastic. And so let’s let’s, let’s go in there, let’s get let’s get on the menu art. Let’s talk about some of the things on the menu. And so again, guys, if you’re out there, your manufacturer or checkout Manufacturing Extension Partnership, as I just mentioned, it’s falls under NIST. If you just Google MEP Manufacturing Extension Partnership, you’re gonna go right to their website, pick the state that you’re in. But let’s talk some some of the things on the menu are you do, you know, lean, operational excellence leadership, you and I’ve worked on a bunch of like digital transformation, we’re gonna dive in that today. Ecommerce, I just covered, I just stole your thunder and a few items. But Dig, dig into some of the other things that you guys help folks without in Indiana?

Art Thomas  18:26

Yeah, I mean, you know, probably the top two things that we get called in for the quality and leadership. And that would probably be the top two, again, much of that is on the training side. And then when it gets into the consulting side, we would get into a lot more technical things like we’re doing an engagement, right now with sustainability, right. But it’s not just training, it’s actually going in and helping them determine what are the things that can change for sustainability, we also get heavily involved, you know, in ERP, selection processes and helping companies. You know, one of the bad things for small to medium manufacturers is, every person or every company that calls you with a software package, I promise you, they will guarantee it will do whatever you want it to do. Yeah. And so it’s nice to have a third party in between there that is on your side and has the technical skills to really understand what is going on. So we help companies with that. You know, to be honest with you, I tell our clients, we can pretty much help in anything, except for we can’t really sell your product. And we really, but you know you’re going to talk a little bit about something that I’m passionate about but and then the other thing is we really don’t get into the accounting practices. That’s kind of an area we’re not involved with. Yeah, so pretty much if it’s in operations, and it’s not one of those categories, we can probably assist. Yeah, you hit

Damon Pistulka  20:09

one hard one there, though, is ERP, right? Because those things can be the best thing you ever put into your company, or they can be just like this gigantic black hole of money suck. Yeah. And I’ve come in on the backside of a bunch of those. And you know, where you spend 234 $100,000 and not on big company, I’m not talking big companies. And, and you still don’t have something that worked as well as what you had before. And it’s so cool that you guys can help Neil navigate through that, because like you said, everybody says they can solve your problem. And me as the manufacturer, I probably haven’t looked at hardly any different solutions, right? They might be the one that that has taken the time to really develop the relationship, but you guys can help them go, Okay, here’s here are a whole suite of ones we should consider not just this one, or these two. So actually,

Art Thomas  21:06

even helping them through the negotiation process, because everybody thinks I’m a great negotiator. But it’s, it’s all the little things that you don’t understand that are going to come back to bite you years later. So we Yeah, so it’s an exciting area. And we were really, we’re excited because of the companies and what they’re getting. To see from that. So no.

Curt Anderson  21:28

So I This is excellent. And we’re gonna dive in and some of your, we’ve had a number of your teammates on the show, so we’re gonna dive in there. But I think just to kind of recap that what’s wonderful is for, you know, the entrepreneurship man is lonely, right. And you just, you just feel like you’re just dodging bullets all day. And just, you know, people are just either trying to, you know, take your money or, you know, whatever, and you’re trying to take care of your employees trying to take care of your customers. And it’s just wonderful. What I’ve found with the MEP network is just having that trusted resources. It’s a seven like a good countability partner, a friend who just really has your back, and you’re looking over their shoulder and just kind of navigating making sure that entrepreneur Hey, did you think of this? Did you see this? Did you cover this? And like you said a lot of different topics. Cybersecurity is a big one. So let’s give a shout out to our dear friend Jean Jones. That’s yeah, I think jeans out if Jean if you’re out there sending tons of love my friend. And so let’s, we’ve had Renee on the show, dear friends with Kayo and Julie and Michelle, but you guys are what 4550 strong at the Purdue MEP. And just all sorts of different walks of life and just all just incredible talent, passion skill set, just like yourself. Talk a little bit about the team at the Purdue MEP, when somebody engages with you. What are some of the expectations or what what would they see working with your team?

Art Thomas  22:48

Well, first of all, I came back, because I am being I’ve been in about 300 companies myself. And I will tell you that Purdue MEP, the group that’s here is very, very special. It’s a Pete, that’s the whole team is made up of people that are passionate about what they do. And the other thing is most of the people that are here, are not here about money. Because I would say probably 80% of the people that work here took a pay cut to do that. a pay cut and and so they’re not here to make money. They’re here to serve. Many of them came here because they want to give back. In other words, they’re excited to go out and now that they’ve been in private industry for so long, be able to give back some of the things they’ve learned and help companies and they’re passionate about our mission. Invariably, when I sit in on tons of interviews, as we went over the years, and almost without exception, everybody that that that you interview that is interested in coming here talks about the mission. So when a client comes to us to a one, they’re getting people that are passionate about what they do, and they’re also getting honesty. And I understand not, you know, somebody probably know somebody from Purdue that, you know, wasn’t, didn’t have high integrity. But I would say by far Purdue has been is very much about integrity and doing things aboveboard. And so that’s the other thing is you get high integrity. And, you know, in general, there’s no, there’s no sales incentives. In other words, it’s yes, we have goals that we have to meet because we have to, we have to meet our requirements from this, but there’s no other incentive. It’s not like, oh, you know, I’m getting paid to, you know, commissioning or something like that. So, and it’s nonprofit. So that’s the other thing is you don’t have somebody coming in from the outside who’s like, Hey, I just want to make money. Right? So I feel like those are big things that differentiate us from pretty much everybody else is that we really are looking out for the client number one, so Yeah,

Curt Anderson  25:00

that’s great looking for the best interest of the client. And again, you guys are covering all sorts of different topics. If I didn’t say his name, I’d be remissed and mad at myself. So Kyle is a dear friend. And that was a good advocate that I’ve worked with in the past. And so let’s go here. I’ve had the honor privilege, you and I have taped him a number of different projects together, we work closely with Jean Vita we have we have fun or what when we work together?

Art Thomas  25:24

Yeah, absolutely. We

Curt Anderson  25:26

have a blast. And so I had the honor and privilege I was sitting in the front row, you gave a wonderful workshop at the annual MEP conference in Buffalo. And the whole topic was on digital transformation. And that’s really kind of that That’s music to you know, that’s the song that you sing. And just, you know, what you love working with your clients is how can you help them get into the, you know, like you mentioned, ERP, or like, Jean would cyber you and I’ve worked together on content marketing and E commerce. Very passionate, very passionate topic for you talk a little bit about what are some of the things that you see with your clients when you start that digital transformation with folks?

Art Thomas  26:04

Well, I think the reason I got so passionate about it was, you know, I robots, you know, kind of hit the scene, and everybody was like, oh, we gotta have a robot. Yeah. And being in small and medium manufacturing, for the most part, most clients, they have a high mix, low volume type thing. And so I started seeing this, that I felt like we’re totally missing. The main point is that many of these companies, the digital transformation that they really are needing, is taking costs out of Not, not just their manufacturing, but also taking it out of their administration, right. And it’s much easier to standardize and automate things that you do repeat over and over and over again, which is invoicing, purchase orders, you know, receiving receiving things, all of those automated processes that are just happening, you know, getting quotes for the stuff you’re going to ship and saying how much money, how many FTE is are being lost there. And we don’t have to cross the bridge of a robot and figure out how you know, it. Look, I just was at a company this morning. They bought two robots, and I’m not against robots. Trust me, I love it that in the right place, and again, but they bought two robots, I was just there this morning. They’ve had them now for about six months. I went in there probably four months ago, right after they got it. And it was not it was down. And they said, Well, why don’t you use it? Well, we’re, we’re just not really sure what to have anybody here to change it over. And six months later, setting off the corner, doesn’t run. And, and so I’ve seen that over and over and over. So to me, I’m all behind that like, but the infrastructure, you know, if a company is not collecting automatic data from out on the floor to learn what they really need, let’s start there. Let’s start at a point where they’re getting good information to make good decisions from. And so and the other thing is, is you can’t grow without good, good data structures and good information. I mean, eventually, it’s just not manageable. I get called in with companies all the time between six and 10 million. And they go, Okay, we don’t know what to do. We can this lady that we that we had working here for last 25 years, she’s retiring. And we don’t even know how to train anybody. Yeah, you have a hard time scaling if you don’t have processes and systems, right. And so I that’s been a big passion of mine. And you know what you’re talking about e commerce, I’ve told companies over and over again, if, first of all, if you’re going to do you’re going to have to be an E commerce eventually. The last person I hired, I don’t know why, but they wanted me to hire the purchasing manager before I left my last position. And I was like, Well, I’m only going to be here a week. But that was my job. So I hired a purchasing manager. It was there one week after he got hired. And but I hired a 26 year old purchasing manager. He does everything digitally, okay. He doesn’t want to talk to you. He doesn’t come into your facility. He doesn’t want to see you. He doesn’t care if he ever meet you. Online, and I’m telling you, I’ve got a I’ve got a 24 year old son. He’s just about to graduate. I yeah, I was going I needed a pair of shoe strings and we drove by shoe carnival. And I said I’m gonna stop in here get shoe strings. He got mad at me. Before I stopped he said Dad, you can have him there tomorrow morning. Why are we going in the store? He hates shopping he hates Getting out donating. So when people say if they’re I’m just telling companies in general, if you spent half of what you spent on people, individual contacts going out door to door, if you took half of that money and put it on E commerce, it will blow your mind if I mean of actually developing something that is reaching. When you think about when you think about the number of people shopping, ecommerce, it just blows your mind. So and I understand, you know, you and I have talked have had this, some companies maybe don’t, you know, they’re not going to do an online store. But that’s okay, you still gonna have to have good information and not information that just, you know, like this guy hired 20. And by the way, he’s still there. And they’ve promoted him three times. Nice. So it’s not like I hired some guy that, you know, they like it. And so you have a 28 year old. That’s, you know, way up in the organization. Right. That’s what he’s, that’s what they’re going to be hired. And that’s what’s going to be there. And so, I would just, you know, when you’re thinking of, and I understand some companies say, Well, my product doesn’t sell easy on the internet. Well, that’s because you have to put it together correctly. will sell on the internet, you just have to know how to put it together? Yeah. So

Curt Anderson  31:26

was that a that was a preacher son right

Damon Pistulka  31:27

there. Because man, it is so true. And you hit it on the head so well, because RT, the people that are buying are not like us on on the screen. Here they are, they want to go online, they want to research the product, they want to find it. And if you sell a popular product, right, and you’d have replacement parts, they might want to go to Amazon, buy the damn things. Who knows. You just got to be you got to be where they’re at. I was just talking to a large national retailer last week and listening to them talk about their strategy for allowing customers to buy in store, online, pickup at store, pickup, you have it fully online experience come into the store and try out product, they really you have to give your customers a lot of different options to buy now, and that it has to come digitally. Yeah.

Art Thomas  32:27

I remember when I was when I was back at my first job, the thing that had just came out and this would have been around 1994. There was they the purchasing department at the time said this is crazy. Now people because of course we’re bidding on things right? We’re as a company we’re bidding. They’re like, This is crazy. They’re just bidding online and talk to anybody. They don’t know nothing about the process, Baba, guess what, that’s what it is all over. I mean, it is all over that way. You gotta have a way of representing your product, your process, whatever, whatever you’re going to present when you go online, or when you go in person, you got to figure out a way of getting that content online, because people are not going to travel. And travel now is became I mean, add into the fact of what we’re doing here today, where you got digital, you know, webinars, whatever, people travel, yes, they’re traveling, but they’re not trapped, most of them are traveling for for pleasure. And business travel is is way down comparatively speaking, when you look at the growth of business versus the growth of travel. Right. So yeah. No, I mean, it’s if you don’t have something online, and you’re really good at it, it’s gonna be a challenge. Yeah. And you know, Curt,

Damon Pistulka  33:49

we’ve had Greg Michaud on here, and he just did a big research report, they did it when bound about how many manufacturers are online, how many are really, you know, out there digitally, and it’s a remarkably small component or amount of them. And it is one of those things that if you’re a manufacturer, and you want to stand out, it is a way for you to leapfrog a lot of your competitors.

Art Thomas  34:13

Yeah. And especially for the small and medium sized companies, right. I mean, that’s where that’s really where, where the growth opportunities are for these companies is you don’t have you’re not looking to differentiate yourself from GM or, or Coca Cola or whatever have is the big that’s not who you’re competing against. I think you are but that’s not who you’re competing against. You’re competing against the other person that’s relative, the same size as you are the differences. You got to set up a differentiator between you and them. You know, it’s the old thing about the preacher in the bear. You know, the bears chasing the preacher, and he prays and says, Hey, can you do something about this bear? And his friend was with him and he said he’s The Lord told him, he said, Put on your sneakers. So he put on his sneakers. And he took off running. He said, I didn’t have to outrun the bear, I just had to run my friend, right. So that’s what these companies have to look at, they’ve got to go, right. It’s not, I don’t have to outrun the bear, I have to outrun the person, or the company that’s just behind me or right beside me. And so the differentiation is the key to the longevity of the business and growth. Well,

Curt Anderson  35:29

our if you knew how appropriate that analogy and that little joke is, because Damon and I actually were in Alaska at the Alaska MEP manufacturing center partnership, we were doing workshops that week, and we were walking through a park. And there were signs all over about bear sightings. And I’m like, Damon, and there’s no way on earth, I’m faster than you. So like, you don’t even have bears is going to get me man. So you know. That was That was classic. So that I love that analogy. And so for small manufacturers out there that are listening to this to take away, you’re not necessarily trying to compete with GE and General Motors and you know, fortune 500 companies, you’re just competing with the Joneses or the competitor down the street or the lady next door, or somebody in another state. And when you’re a 1020 person shot man, you absolutely can improve your digital presence. It’s it’s Man, I hate to say it’s almost inexcusable. Not to a we’ve got a couple of friends, I want to give a shout out. Diane ran from the mid Atlantic. Diane is here at Dave and Dave Chrysler, he’s outside of the Detroit Lions won over the weekend. Oh, wow. Yeah. So welcome. I know, I know, I’m keeping you heard. We’re here with art Thomas from the Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Man, are we having a good time talking? We’re geeking out about digital transformation, how important it is. Even if you’re a small manufacturer, aren’t you want to get into like any success stories? Or any like, you know, how does that manufacturer that small 1020 person manufacturer? How do they start that digital transformation? That seems overwhelming? Kind of like exactly what you did with your college degree? Man, it’s just so far out in the future? How do you help them take that one bite that one step at a time?

Art Thomas  37:14

I mean, I think I think with with anything really, you know, and continuous improvement, I don’t look at this any differently than think continuously improving. If you don’t do this, right. If there isn’t a, a well, I’m going to do then this No, you’re going to you have to adopt technology. And again, adopting it at the point where you are making that next step. So you know, if it’s, if it’s in process things where it’s in your plant, again, look for those things, where look, I do this a lot every day, right? I’m doing this, and I’m paying somebody and then going back to the Lean principles is what I’m paying people to do. Right? Is it value added. So when you think about anything in the office, anything in the office, any admin work, that the client is not your customer, if you put that on your invoice as a line item of how much they’re paying for your overhead, they are not gonna be willing to pay that they’re gonna you’re gonna get phone calls from your customer saying, I don’t want to pay for you to invoice me. Right? They’re gonna call you about that, right? They’re gonna call you about the things that you’re doing. I you know, I just had a conversation yesterday or day before? I’m sorry, not yesterday, it would have been Thursday, saying, Look, even some of the lean guys that have been out there a long time. They don’t want to use digital. They’re like, Oh, no, we got no, that’s that you’re hurting the companies you’re working with. You are teaching them how to take those principles into a digital world. Right. And so that’s that to me, and that’s where you got to start, you got to start changing mindsets, that there are opportunities, technology is not bad. The other thing when you’re talking about online content, and the reason I got excited when we started working with you, Curt, was I love the fact that you came in where they work. It’s not like, Oh, we’re gonna sell you this grand plan for the next 12 years. You pay us $2,000 a month. And then guess what? We disappear? No, there because the challenge really small companies is is I need to know exactly what to do right now. What can I do to get my ranking, or to improve the month my traffic or to get me on the next page? And I love the fact that you came in with very doable solutions. Like they weren’t like, oh my goodness, you know, I gotta do this pie in the sky. No, it was very practical things. And the fact that you came in and said, Look, this is where you’re at right now. And this is you got a measurement, right? That’s the other thing. If you can’t measure something, then you really need to decide is it worth doing? Right if I can’t measure it is worth doing. I’m not saying it’s not because there are things in life that you can’t measure. But you really need to be careful. If you’re stepping over that threshold and you can’t measure success, then you probably need to back up and take a really strong look at it. So with continuous improvement, whatever it may be, whether it’s automation or content online, how am I gonna measure success? What does success look like? And you start off with that, I love that. I mean, I’m not gonna give your you know, I like but I know, one of the books you wrote was how to stop being the best kept secret, right? Well, one of the things you’re talking about in the initial interviews that we’ve had with companies, is you’re asking them, What does your best what does your Prime customer look like? Like? And really, and I’ll tell you a lot of small business owners, they don’t even know who that is, because, and not not because they’re dumb, because they’re not. I mean, these people are way smarter than me. They have way more guts than I do. But they don’t have time to stop sometimes. And even think about what the best customers, right? Yeah.

Curt Anderson  41:04

All right, David, savor that. Minute, man. We didn’t even plan yet. One. So our Thank you, man, thank you for giving a shout out to my mom’s favorite book, there’s stuff, you know. But David, can you like, Man, I just I wish I was ever on every call with our because he just he comes in. He’s just very practical, pragmatic, straight to the point. And just clients as resonate with his honesty, his authenticity is vast experience in manufacturing. And so I have to tell you, man, it’s just an honor and privilege partnering and teaming up with you. And when you and I chat with clients, and I just I have to love, love how you’re, and we’ve been on calls, we’re like, you know, I kind of do like my little Kirche stick in our just like, Guys, you need to listen to this. Like, he’s just very practical. And just like, I’m telling you give us that 26 year old story. I love that. You’ve told that three times I love that story. These buyers are getting younger, and no disrespect. They it’s not that they don’t want to talk or communicate. They’re just more efficient. Yeah, they’re just more efficient. Like you’re 24 year old son. He’s like, Dad, why are you going in that store? Dude, just just hit a button. It’ll be at the house tomorrow,

Damon Pistulka  42:09

right? Yeah. Yeah, it really is in that and you know, it’s, you hit it, it’s efficient. And it’s the way that they want to do it, because they’re off to doing whatever they need to do or want to do. Rather than doing that, that thing. And when you look through the entire ecosystem of of customer order to product delivered to a to a customer, there are so many opportunities to just automate the little things that take time all the way through there that are wasting manufacturers time and resources, those people don’t want to be pushing the button to send an email after every order is received, you know, confirming it. If the system could do it automatically, it happens and they’re off to doing something that’s bigger and better value for themselves and the company. It’s just all through the process. It’s ready, ready and waiting.

Art Thomas  43:01

You know, when we were when we were young people, the three of us, I can remember, myself and others bragging about how many hours a week they put in, you know, yeah, I put about 60 I put in so well, I can tell you the younger generation, they don’t care. They are not going to do that. My son, he hit the job he’s working out right now. He went into them. And he said, Look at you, we’ve talked about money, whatever. But first, I want to tell you, I want to work from six to three. I mean, from nine to from nine to three, I want to work six hours a day. If you don’t want to hire me, that’s fine, right? Because once you get those skill sets, and I’m just downing a why? Because he knows he can be more efficient, right that most people are in 10 hours, because he’s not going to have to leave his desk he can just bang bang bang bang, just get it done.

Curt Anderson  43:52

Right. Yeah, right. And that right? And oh my god, I couldn’t agree more. Dave Chrysler says technology is simply the tool we need to create. We need people to create and optimize the process. That’s the thing is like, just think how much more efficient you can be. Instead of like, Hey, I have 12 hours to do my job. Well, I’ll make it 12 hours to do my job. But if I can do the same job in six hours, we’ll do it right it’s just it’s just that much more practical that much more efficient. And right to your tagline are it’s how do you help people become more more profitable? So I man week, David week, I’m I’m keeping it longer. I know we could i three of us could probably chat for hours. Yeah, let’s start taking it home. I know we have a fun, fun program coming up at the Purdue MEP. We’re doing a workshop I’m teaming up with Holly from the from protocol ad wrote a book on content marketing. So Purdue MEP, just put that out on LinkedIn this morning. So you guys promoting that program, or any other programs, anything else that you want to mention or where folks can find you where they can find the Purdue MEP? Yeah,

Art Thomas  44:55

so it’s really easy. If you just type in Purdue and MEP in your search, you’re going to come right to our webpage. The other thing I would say is, is really look at the because we’ve got a bunch of other Curt’s perch doing some, but we’ve got other companies that offer other services, or that we offer about demystifying right. Digital transformation, right? In other words, taking all the in. So we’ve got different groups that are coming in and are helping. And it’s grassroots stuff. It’s not, you know, the flamboyant, hey, we’ll tell you what you need, you need a robot, you know, no, it’s, it’s getting down to the sensors on your machines and things that can really change and really tell you, in many cases, what to do next. So we’re big about data and letting data drive decisions in many, many cases? Well,

Curt Anderson  45:48

I’d say again, it’s just is we close out, it’s just great having a Sherpa have that guide, having that trusted resource, like the MEP network, and in your case at Purdue top engineering school in the country, and just a wealth of information. Again, we’ve had a number of your teammates on the show, I’m trying to get some of your other teammates, they’re a little on the shy side, but I might, I might sway them and convince them Julie, Michelle, if you’re out there listening. So our first off, I want to thank you, my friend, I just I it’s just such an honor privilege. You’re just you know, again, if you guys are just joining us, are Thomas at the Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a guy who’s just deep in faith, just an incredible father, wonderful family man, and just deeply dedicated to helping us manufacturing. So hey, if you’ve been sitting around, join us for the past, I guess, around 46 minutes, then I encourage you stand up give a little stretch. And how about a big round of applause for Art Thomas for absolutely crushing it today. So our Thank you my closing thoughts, words of wisdom, we’re still kind of rare January 2024. Any words of wisdom for anybody out there to crush it for this year? Any words of wisdom for anybody out there as we close out? Well,

Art Thomas  46:57

I I’ll just share this. Some of you know, Halliburton, who is our is going to be the all star guard for the East plays for the Indiana Pacers. And they were interviewing him and they asked him right before the new year, what New Year’s resolutions he had. And I loved his answer. He said, I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, because that’s just another excuse to procrastinate. So look at what you got to do in front of you and just do it. Looking and making resolutions and and just say, Look, if it’s here, I’m gonna do it. And I looked at him and I was like, That is awesome. Now you don’t have to wonder why he came from where he’s at where he’s at right from where he wants to where he’s at. That’s what it takes to answer.

Curt Anderson  47:44

Well drop the mic guys again. And I encourage you go back and catch the beginning art gave some background here on his his quest on earning a college degree as a father of three at the time went up to five kids. And so just very inspiring. Talk about your dad, your hero and how he’s been to 140 countries has nine businesses that he founded that are still going and Soulja Boy, what an inspiration Damon who takeaways your thoughts on the program today.

Damon Pistulka  48:12

Just thanks. It’s great to be able to talk with you today and share the work you guys are doing at the the Purdue MEP and and just your experience. And it’s just so great to be able to talk with you today. Thank you.

Art Thomas  48:25

You’re welcome. I enjoyed talking about things I’m passionate about. So well.

Curt Anderson  48:30

This was great stuff. So get our hang out with us for one second, guys. Thank you for joining us, boy, I encourage you, I invite you I welcome you, boy just go out and be someone’s inspiration just like our buddy art was for us today. And so, Damon we’re gonna be back here Friday. We have a great we’re talking. Chris Lukey from manufacturing happy hour, we’re gonna be talking about the marketing Summit. And so we’re gonna be doing that on Friday. So guys have an amazing incredible rest of your week. Keep crushing it reach out to your local MEP, reach out to RT at the Purdue MEP, and we will see you soon. Peace