Manufacturing.net: Shaping the Manufacturing Landscape

Curt Anderson  00:00

Hey guys, what is going on? Happy Monday. Good morning, good afternoon. Damon, how are you? Man,

Damon Pistulka  00:06

I am awesome. Curt, ready to go for this week.

Curt Anderson  00:09

Man, I’ll tell you. We’ve got a dear, good friend, repeat offender in the house. Here today, we’ve got the one, the only, none other than David Mantey, David, how are you, dude,

David Mantey  00:19

I’m I’m doing great today, guys. I’m really, really excited to join you again.

Curt Anderson  00:24

Such an honor, such a privilege. You’ve been here multiple times. We just love when you come on. You’ve got the latest and greatest. What’s going on in manufacturing? You’re part of the manufacturing.net? Team, industrial equipment. News. So, David, let’s just, let’s dive in. What’s some of the latest greatest? What are you seeing on the streets? What’s happening at manufacturing.net

David Mantey  00:42

Well, a couple of things at manufacturing.net one thing, when it comes to we’re seeing people be a lot more strategic with their advertising dollars. You know, one thing that we have is a B2B publication is that we have a very high value audience. You know, we have manufacturing professionals. We engage them on a daily basis with highly engaging content so they know and trust brands like industrial equipment, news i n.com and manufacturing.net so when we compare that with some sort of AI powered smart engagements advertising, you know, you can hit these specific personas and similar personas on across our platform, and we’ve seen people getting a lot smarter in terms of how they’re going to market with advertising dollars. From a content perspective, we have a really, a big achievement coming up. You know, we’re 190 episodes into the today and manufacturing podcast that was something that was kind of started out as a whim, just like, I don’t know. Do you think people would listen to us talk to each other about the news we’ll see and we’re coming up on 200 episodes, so we’re pretty excited about that as well. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool.

Curt Anderson  01:50

Super exciting. So let’s dive in. So for our friends out there, hey, drop us a note. Let us know you’re here. We’ve got Diane Byer in the house. Diane, Happy Monday to you. Thank you for joining us. Awesome. Connect with David Mantey. Follow industrial equipment news. Check out manufacturing.net. If you haven’t already. So let’s start with industrial equipment news now. Damon, you’ve been on the block for just a little bit, right? You’re Yeah, couple years, one or two, yep,

Damon Pistulka  02:15

yep. I can remember when you still got those in print.

David Mantey  02:19

We still, we’re still printing it. It’s still, we’re still the largest circulation print magazine in the industry, and it’s still that product tab size, yep, the big

Damon Pistulka  02:31

format, size. I remember you would get them and because I was in it, you know, an engineer working early, looking for things, solutions, looking at the latest and greatest, such good publications and so valuable, if you’re a technical person in those fields and and now you guys in so many different markets, too different

David Mantey  02:47

Well, yeah. And we, you know, it’s been around since 1933 it started in newsprint. We have a couple of the original issues, refoldage out. Yeah, it’s, I mean, I mean, it’s like, it looks like the first newspaper ever, yeah. But it’s all, you know, product news, and we’ve kind of stayed true to those roots and added things throughout the years. But yeah, it’s, it’s been an industry staple for a long time. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  03:13

well, and you think about it, I mean, you, you were there before the internet, you and then it just continued to evolve and get better, as you guys have now on the the integration of the two, the the actual physical print and the internet, it just works so well together.

David Mantey  03:28

Well, it’s wild. How many people still connect to a print property as well? Because I’ll admit, I was one of the people that you know once we got heavily into the newsletter business about 15 years ago, I’m just like, whoa. This is kind of it when it comes to information. And I’m not sure how legacy media is going to keep up, but there has been a very passionate and engaged print audience that we continue to serve, what, six times a year. Now still, wow. Okay, so

Curt Anderson  03:58

you know what, David, I’m going to pull it up in a minute, but what I want to do, you know, you got a legacy brand, you know, 90, you know, 90 years ish, right? And so, 90 plus. And so from 1933 so for long time, folks, you know, very, you know, building that community. Very familiar with the industrial equipment news, like you said, Damon, like you look forward to it, you know, like I’ve walked into manufacturers and I see the print copy right in there, right right there. When you walk in, it’s right there, right yeah, David, talk a little bit about what is it like, you know, work, you know, you’re on a digital cutting edge, but you’ve married like such an old time. You know, traditional magazine for industrial, you know, walk us through, like, what’s it like being part of this company? And then let’s talk about that digital transformation.

David Mantey  04:41

Well, a lot of it was bringing it up to speed when we took over the brand in about 2016 you know, I think I’ve joked with you guys previously that when you looked at that website, it was a, it was definitely a website that was designed in 1996 and wasn’t really tweaked since, so definitely needed some updating. I mean, it had a. Randomizer. Like, I don’t know how you can have news that is shown randomly on the homepage. It’s just like, well, when was that published? I don’t know. Didn’t even have dates. So we completely relaunched the brand with a new website that’s more engaging, more responsive to readers interest. This is actually the story, our top story today is about the kind of ongoing war with stellantis and UAW. And when you talk about coverage and how that’s changed, you know now it’s not just day to day, it’s hour by hour. This is a story that broke this morning and rewrote it as our daily video for our newsletter audience, because a lot of the same critical issues remain the same. You know, jobs, training, what’s the cutting edge technology that’s going to help you do your job better and covering that on a daily basis? And so we still, we try to marry those best practices that we’ve always shared with our audience, going back to that first newsprint, to what we serve every day.

Curt Anderson  06:06

Yeah, I love and of course, you know, it’s wonderful. See, we’re back at the toilet paper panic, right? So,

David Mantey  06:11

oh yeah, well, it’s, it’s crazy. Oh my goodness. You say supply chain shortage, and there’s just, you know, a certain percentage of people that just says, I need to buy toilet paper, and I don’t know why,

Damon Pistulka  06:21

yeah, yeah. Actually, I have a customer that that experienced that. On the other side, it was like, What? What? What’s happening, what’s happening. We have all these orders. They go, Oh yeah, yeah. We have panic again, yeah,

David Mantey  06:34

well, panic again. And that was another one. Then that’s a story that winds up having a different context for the manufacturing audience, because they more or less find it funny, because they’re like, well, 80 90% of the toilet paper is manufactured domestically, so not gonna have to worry about docs. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  06:54

right. It’s just, it’s all perception, right? Yeah, exactly.

Damon Pistulka  06:59

That’s so funny because of that fact, it is. It’s made here. Why are you worried?

David Mantey  07:05

And so looking at our website, you know, one of the tabs that’s actually the most popular too, is you go to the new products, and that’s something where you’re seeing cutting edge technology. We’ve actually had a huge influx of new products that have come out ever since IMTS, that’s traditionally where a lot of companies hold products to make a big splash in the industry. And so we’ve had a huge influx in new products. We’ve seen a lot of things with our primary brand manufacturing business technology that does a lot of the cybersecurity side of the manufacturing business. So we’ve seen a lot of these gateways and other cybersecurity measures, stuff like that. Of course, it’s relevant to our entire audience, so it goes across, but this is one of those, like, sneaky sections of our website that winds up being more popular than I ever expected, because at the end of the day, all these new products are something that you know, manufacturing businesses need to consider whether or not to invest in just to do a better job. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  07:59

well, because if you’re sitting there as an engineer or a technical leader in these companies, you have to know what’s coming out, because the company down the street, a company around the world, could be adopting a technology you don’t know anything about, and they can put you out of business. It’s true well, and

David Mantey  08:16

that’s why you know, our coverage case studies are very popular with their readership as well, because, like you said, they want to know how other people are using it and how that translates to their business. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  08:26

very cool. I

Curt Anderson  08:27

love that. And the thing is, when you look at the tabs here, you’re covering so, you know, take a manufacturer, you know, they have 510, employees. You know, they’re throwing on a different hat every day, and these are all the topics that they’re concerned about. You know, with AI, we’re going to dive a little deeper into that automation Made in USA, operation, safety, software, supply chain, you know. And like you said, like you’re doing a lot with cybersecurity, and I think a lot of people ignore that. Dave, could you just touch a little bit on, like, what you’re hearing, what you’re seeing from the cyber security standpoint? What do you what are you guys covering?

David Mantey  08:57

Man, so Jeff Reinke, my colleague, who you guys know, he actually hosts the security breach podcast, which is a cyber security weekly podcast, or monthly podcast. I think it’s weekly now, actually, specifically for that audience. And he has experts from throughout the industry, and what they do is they talk about where there has been breaches, where there had been vulnerabilities, and basically what we can learn from them and how we can prevent them going forward. And that has been a sneaky, popular website, just because that affects everybody. You know, everyone was so hot to get on, you know, IoT and industry 4.0 and they didn’t realize that they kind of opened up a lot of different parts of their facilities to potential to potential hacks, cybersecurity breaches. Yeah, yeah,

Curt Anderson  09:50

I love and so Hey, congratulations to Jeff on uncovering these topics. You know, talk a little bit about how. So we’re looking at the industrial equipment news again, anybody in the. Industry. You know, it’s been around since 1933 everybody’s familiar with this. I’m going to go to manufacturing.net so now I believe you’ve been around since like 98 do I have that correct? Yeah.

David Mantey  10:10

Um, oh, go ahead.

Curt Anderson  10:11

So, I mean, so the cool thing is, and again, I just, I can’t emphasize enough, you know how you’ve taken a legacy, traditional brand, and really stayed on the cutting edge forefront, being pioneers from online e commerce, podcasting, just share a little bit on, like, what’s the internal mindset and, like, how the intention is. How can we kind of help share that message with manufacturers and how they can embrace these changes.

David Mantey  10:36

I think it’s always challenging yourself to do it better. You know, I am often driven mad by complacency, and when you find yourself resting on your laurels, it I mean, for me, it gets boring, but it also really makes you, puts you at risk in terms of falling behind. So we’re always looking at how people are consuming media, how that is changing. We’re always looking at the stats to see engagement times on the site, pathways on the site, just to see how we can keep our our audience, opening newsletters, engaging with our content, and, you know, also finding value in our content. Yeah, so

Curt Anderson  11:18

David, and you know, I you know, I hope I’m not putting you on the spot. Just share a little bit on how, you know, again, for manufacturer, you know, I was on a call earlier with a client. They’re trying to figure out their website. How do you architecture, you know, buyer’s journey. Just share a little bit on, you know, we’re covering, you know, here you’ve got aerospace, you know, just as we saw on industrial equipment news, some similar categories. But you know, here’s the cyber security, right here. So again, like really mission critical topic that we’d love to kind of keep our head in the sand and ignore. But how are you, how are you tracking these, these topics to deliver the right ones for the right folks? Um,

David Mantey  11:55

a lot of it is watching stats on a day to day, hour by hour basis, in terms of so our newsletter, just, our newsletter, just went out this morning, and you know, there will be 14 to 20 different pieces of content in that newsletter every day. And we look at what people are reading and why, and we bring people in with our top story, right? So, the top story was the stellantis Union piece, and also the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, particularly that plastics plants. We bring people in there, but then we also have other stories on safety at boat manufacturers, Siemens mobility, opening up a new manufacturing facility, Yaskawa, getting into AI for warehouses. We look at the engagement on that type of content, and that’s how we determine whether or not we’re going to follow up on it and follow, kind of follow the story, you know, things that are obvious, you know, stellantis, UAW, that’s something that people are going to follow to the very end, because that has very wide ranging implications on the entire industry. And then you find the smaller stuff towards the end, like we do a lot of STEAM and STEM coverage as well. Just had National Manufacturing Day. So you like to also cover kind of the cool parts of the industry too. Like, I just did a story on the Milford proving ground from GM, and how that just turned 100 years old. And that’s just, that’s just cool, because, you know, one thing that I’ve I talk about a lot, especially on the podcast is, you know, it’s okay for manufacturers to do a little bit of chest thumping. It’s okay for manufacturers to celebrate those anniversaries you’ve been around for 100 years. And if you look, if you just start scratching the surface of the how the automotive industry is the way it is today, just because of this Milford proving ground, I don’t know. I think it’s, I think it warrants recognition, and I think that manufacturers should do a better job telling those stories. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  13:48

I’d say I couldn’t agree with you more as far as, like, telling those stories, you know what? So I was going to jump into another conversation, but I want to pause on that. Like, how can any tips advice for small manufacturers. Damon, we’re, we’re constantly preaching that, you know, on our show, we’re, you know, trying to bring on different manufacturers. And people love that origin story. David, let’s go there a little bit on that story, whether it’s telling your story and how you know your journey, you’re just sharing like, Hey, you guys are in growth mode. Things are going extremely well for you. Very passionate helping manufacturers. How can either you know and you and what I love and admire, our relationship, our friendship, is you don’t talk to talk. You guys walk the walk@manufacturing.net so you know what you’re sharing is like, well, this is what we do. You know, I’m not like I heard about this last week, or I read about it in, you know, in a book like, this is what we do. How can manufacturers do a better job sharing their story. No,

David Mantey  14:41

I mean, you’re right. It is what we do. It’s a not to get too sidetracked. But a bunch of us were just in a chili cook off, and we won Best theme, and one of the guys that doesn’t work with us just stepped aside. He’s like, wow. It’s almost like you guys do marketing or something, because we just you. You know, it’s not just chilly for us. It’s an entire theme we, like, really leaned into an Oktoberfest theme. And, you know, we had everything, like, we had pretzel necklaces hanging from the rafters, and everyone was dressed up in later hosing. He’s just like, Oh, you guys just nice. Like, yeah. But when it comes to telling your story, I think that a lot of times, people overthink it and over complicated. You know, a recent story that we just worked on. It was about the oldest operating Toyota Forklift found in operation. And it was found in Burlington, Ontario. This is on IEN right now, and so it’s a Holland based, Holland, Michigan based company called intelli parts company. They’re a supplier of aftermarket forklift tools, and every year they pick a brand, and they try to find the oldest forklift that they can that’s in operation in the industry. And this is just, it’s not a huge story, right? But they sent me five sentences. They’re like, we did this contest. We found this. Here’s some photos. It’s crazy. And then it’s on our editorial staff to kind of fill out the story a little bit more. But, you know, Intel aparts did a really good job getting their name out there because of this unique opportunity that they present to the market and sharing it with our editorial staff. I think that some people, you know, they think they got to publish an ebook about the origins of their story, but it doesn’t need to be that complicated. I mean, Reva, I like to run stories when you know, people celebrate their 40th anniversary, stuff like that. I think those feel good. Stories are kind of really cool. And for the record, so what was this thing? It was a 1978 Toyota, 42 three, FG, C 20. That’s the oldest one in operation right

Curt Anderson  16:39

now. That’s just added Crazy, right? Yeah, right, absolutely. And

David Mantey  16:44

the photos of this thing, this thing, it’s been put through the paces. That’s brilliant.

Curt Anderson  16:49

Hey, we’ve got a couple of people I want to give a shout out here. So Rhea says we’ve got Bill out here. So hey, wishing you a wonderful week as well. Diane says helping manufacturers share their story. So important again, guys drop on drop us a note. Connect. We’ve got David Mante here from manufacturing.net and industrial equipment news. They have all sorts of different brands just fiercely, just fierce advocates for manufacturers and the industrial sector doing incredible work. If you’re not familiar, you know, get signed up for their newsletter. So David, I want to slide into Sarah, sharing that story. You said, on a whim, you guys, 190 episodes ago, you did like, hey, let’s just do this podcast thing. So just share for your perspective. What has podcasting done for you personally, and what has it done for the business? Well,

David Mantey  17:39

personally, it’s afforded me an opportunity to, you know, get together with some of my closest friends and colleagues and talk about an industry that we’re very passionate about every Thursday. So I mean, you get all of us into a room, and, you know, the two producers of the podcast are close personal friends, Jeff and Anna and I have worked together forever, and we’re all close personal friends, and so we kind of talk about how, you know, we’d be having this conversation anyways, and people generally find it entertaining. So it’s been really, it’s been a really cool journey so far. And I we really enjoy and look forward to shooting it every week and see what kind of word I’m gonna butcher that week, or, yeah, or, you know what? Different story, because the format of it is also, I think, important to it as well. We don’t just pick stories that are going to, we think be popular with our audience. We go straight to the stats, and we see the top five stories on our website, and then we discuss what that means to the manufacturing industry going forward, and on a personal level, I’ve never had I’ve been writing articles and columns for the better part of 15 to 20 years now, and every once in a while you really connect with a reader. You have an ongoing relationship where they write in and say when you’re right and you’re wrong or they disagree about this. But I mean, we’ve cultivated this audience with today in manufacturing that’s a lot more personal. You know they they know us. They share their stories with us. A couple of weeks ago, we were talking about a government bailout of a cruise ship company, and one of our readers actually happened to be going on a cruise, and just shared his, you know, shared his experience from it we had when a lot of when everything was happening with the Boeing starlain Starliner International Space Station story. You know, a lot of our listeners work at Boeing, and they’re like, Okay, we understand what you’ve reported on, but here’s what’s really happening, and it’s incredible that they trust us with that part of the story to share. Like, Hey, okay, listen, things are bad, but they’re not that bad, and it’s just a deeper connection with the industry than I ever anticipated at creating

Damon Pistulka  19:57

that’s really cool. I

Curt Anderson  19:58

think, yeah, I think it’s not. Know, and so for you know, everybody out there is perfect. Let’s see if I share this tab. So, you know, definitely get signed up for the podcast. You know, sign up for their newsletter. Just all sorts of wonderful, helpful information here. So, David, how about for any manufacturer out there is, is podcasting? Was it a heavier lift than you anticipated? Like, see if there’s a manufacturer out there that wants to start creating some content. Do you recommend? Suggest video? Do you suggest, you know, podcasting. What are your

David Mantey  20:28

thoughts there? I you know, the joke is, everybody has a podcast now, so why not another one? But there would be a podcast is a heavy lift, because sometimes it takes consistency. You know, we’re out every Thursday, every week, same time live, and then it goes out same time every Monday morning. So you do need to develop some consistency. If a manufacturer is interested in telling their story via a podcast format, I would suggest partnering with a company like ours or a company that has the capabilities, because it’s kind of a lot of equipment, if you want to do it right, and you can record your story, have that to chop up into multiple shareable bits and record it once, you know, and turn it into a lot of marketing capital. However, if you want to make yourself a thought leader, and if you want to commit to, you know, I think of, Oh, what was the manufacturing podcast? It just, Oh, come on, I’m missing it. No, there was a manufacturing podcast. It’s been around for nine years. It just shuttered because they sold the company anyway. It was a but it was spun out of a steel like a milling company, you know, just because the owner of the company wanted to start sharing his perspective on the on the manufacturing industry. And that is going to torture me, that I can’t think of that off the top of my head. But so, I guess I hate to answer from both sides of my mouth that, like, if you are committed to it and you want to buy, you know, a really good mic and a little bit of lighting. You can do that and it, it is a really good way for you to connect to your audience. But if you are looking to just put together a podcast for yourself, you know, partner with a publisher that has a studio and, you know, we can help make a really good product, you know, Curt, we just worked together on that roundtable discussion on E commerce, and, I mean, almost a case study and how to do it, how Chris has taken that and cut it into multiple clips that she shared five, six times across social media. It’s just kind of a, you know, proving, it, proving the example, right,

Curt Anderson  22:43

and that So was it making chips? By any chance it’s

David Mantey  22:46

not making chips, not making sure, because they’re still around. So David, you

Curt Anderson  22:50

and I can, let’s, let’s share a couple bad dad jokes while David looks right. We’ll distract everybody while you why you take a look.

David Mantey  22:57

But no, no, I was just, I was trying to, because I was, man, I was even on the thing. So,

Curt Anderson  23:08

alright, so let’s go here. Because the thing is, you know, what, I few things that I want to unpack that you just mentioned, okay, with a potential say, you know, when you do, you and the team do an amazing job helping folks with video marketing, getting the message out, our little shameless tagline, stop being the best kept secret. So you know. Again, if you want, if you have a message, you have a promotion, you have a product, you have something, reach out to David and the team. They are. They just do, you know. And again, they’re not walking the walk. They’re right. They’re not talking to talk. They’re walking the walk.

Damon Pistulka  23:39

Yeah, they’re walking.

David Mantey  23:40

They’re doing talking than walking. I can’t

Curt Anderson  23:43

even walk and talk. I had to get rid of my gum before I got on. Damon, I can’t even walk and chew gum at the same time. Yeah. But what I love that you do, you mentioned consistency, right? Then we’re talking about, you know, the efficiency of it. If so, a manufacturer came on, you know, did a jam session for 15 minutes about, you know, we did something on E commerce. You guys are talking about, you know, from Boeing to, you know, Baxter to whatever company, whatever, the latest, greatest news, if you’re a CNC shop, if you’re a circuit board manufacturer, you know, if you did something like that for 1520, minutes once a month, right? And you’re like, hey, you know what? Just once a month, I’ve got to create content anyway. I’ve got to do business development anyway. Why not go this direction, you know. So I just like, you know, a few things that you’ve covered. Damon, what are your thoughts?

Damon Pistulka  24:25

Yeah, and, and, you know, David, I’m sure you guys have seen this too. Is that the advertising cost you talked about earlier, the smart, smart investment in advertising, or changing and really getting into it, it’s, it’s, you can’t just go out and buy Google Ads anymore and hope that you’re going to grow your business like that because they the pricing has gotten pretty crazy, especially when you consider all the way through the chain to an actual sale. You know what that acquisition cost really, really is, and there are more effective ways to do it

David Mantey  24:55

well, and we have seen high value associated with podcast advertising. In particular, there’s just a higher conversion because you have a more engaged audience that wants to support the podcast, and especially when you have reads from the CO hosts, there’s a little bit more trust there. There’s a little bit more willingness to go and seek out that product or service or white paper or whatever it is, you know, just because you’re in, you’re You’re among friends, you know, it’s being told to you among friends. And I was so it was manufacturing talk radio, if you know that one, oh yeah, manufacturing talk radio was around for like, nine years, and kind of just went away as a result of an acquisition. But that was the one that was born out of Lou Weiss’s manufacturing shop.

Curt Anderson  25:45

Yeah, go ahead. Perfect example. So, go ahead. David,

Damon Pistulka  25:49

well, and it’s so I mean, there are so many experiences that these manufacturers have these long time industry people, these people new into the industry. I mean, even when you look at the Gen Zers coming in, there’s an opportunity for them to really share their story moving into manufacturing and other things they do. It is a way to really, you know, if you’re trying to set your brand apart by being a by really helping people and sharing great information, or just sharing your insights in the industry, it just like you said, it is a commitment. Because if you want to do it every week, like you guys are doing, it is, I mean, it’s, it’s a grind to be able to do it, but if you want to, and that’s one of your passions, it can really turn into some nice things for you well, and

David Mantey  26:36

it’s easy for that commitment to slide too, you know, you got to hold yourself accountable. Yes. Curt, you had mentioned video or audio. Personally, I’m a fan of offering both, because when you both, when you record both video and audio, it just opens up the possibilities in terms of how many more places you can be shared. And let’s be honest, if you can put it on YouTube and cut it up into YouTube shorts, that’s just going to expand your reach exponentially. But yeah, I don’t, I don’t the regular, the consistency. Oh, you had mentioned Gen Z. That’s what I wanted to talk about. So Nolan beilstein, another colleague of mine, he hosts the Gen Z and manufacturing podcast. He’s and what I like about that is it’s a monthly series where he talks about what it’s like from the perspective of a Gen Z individual in the industry, boots on the ground, and it’s, you know, it’s kind of, they don’t pull any punches, you know, it’s, uh, I don’t like this about management. This is what works for me. I’m taking less money to work at this company because they do it the opposite of this company. And I think it provides tremendous insight we gotta get past just, you know, Gen Z doesn’t want to work. Yeah, we’ve got to figure out that, you know, every generation is just going to work differently. Every generation

Curt Anderson  27:48

is going to right, and they got to put up with all of us, Gen Xers and boomers and everything else, right? So I think that’s absolutely fantastic. Let me I’m going to go back to your website for a second, and again, I want to hit some of these, the different topics, to see where the manufacturing.net go. So I’ve got here, here, here, here’s industrial. Let’s see. Let’s go here. Okay, let’s go back here. So looking at all these different topics. So we’ve talked about cyber. You’ve got Gen Z right here, industry 4.0 I’m going to talk a little bit of we mentioned supply chain software. So, David, what do you for our manufacturing friends out there? What are some key components that you guys are talking since that’s one of your top categories, what are you hearing about in software?

David Mantey  28:31

Well, I mean, one of the biggest things I heard from IMTS was that, you know, you gotta be careful when it comes to software. In terms of everything is AI powered. Now, you know, everything has an AI spin on it, and sometimes it’s honest, you know? But there are a lot of bad experiences out there that people are kind of using to be a little bit more hesitant to AI adoption in manufacturing, some of the things that I saw that were very promising. So it’s a company called data datanomics. I got a chance to talk to Greg McHale. He’s the founder and CEO. He’s using AI in new software that they launched at IMTS to predict part quality. Basically, they pulled in all this cutting cycle data, and it’s giving him more predictive and preventative information about the about cutting tools, you know, but he’s a little bit more honest. We’re not honest. He’s like AI is just another tool to solve a problem, and like any tool, you got to make sure that you have to have good tools. He also said that, you know, the industry is underserved a lot by your software in general, and a lot of that is sometimes because of ERP. He said ERP to a lot of people was, like, having a colonoscopy, yeah, I’m just like, Well, if that’s not a quote I’m going to use. But other companies are, are, are doing some really cool stuff, like, I guess, I guess go, if you’ve used that. App at all. I mean, it’s just an app that uses the camera. You can take a picture of anything, and it tells you where their parts can be used to make it more efficient, make it quieter, use it something that’s lubrication free. Siemens had some really cool AI powered stuff. And then I really I got an opportunity to talk to Kathleen Mitford. She’s the Corporate Vice President of Global Industry Marketing at Microsoft, and Microsoft has been doing some crazy things when it comes to AI, empowering manufacturers to get a little bit smarter. One in particular was a case or not a case study. But how Harding electronics, if you’re familiar with that company, Harding electronics is using AI basically to free up engineering, get rid of its existing inventory and improve commercial, off the shelf device sales. So basically, you know, with this particular component, a lot of people want custom made products, right? And they come in, they put their specs in, and then an engineer gets on it makes an entirely new custom product specifically for that customer. What they’re using AI for is basically AI is looking at all the specs that were put in and then recommends the closest one that they have on the shelf. So it’s like, okay, we can build you a custom one right here, and it’s gonna be a little bit more expensive, and it’s gonna take a minute, or we got the take a minute, or we got this one right here, that is pretty much what you’re looking for. And I thought that was a wild, wild success story

Damon Pistulka  31:29

that is crazy. Cool. Yeah,

David Mantey  31:32

there’s also so Bell. Bell Textron is using it to look at the Times airplanes were grounded. It helps identify the problem with airplanes, the solution to likely fix it. And it also tells you the maintenance guy that’s likely the most qualified to fix it. Yeah, yeah. They basically fed it 60,000 pages of documentation to come up with this AI engine. And it’s really improved a lot of it’s improved a lot of outcomes for Bell Textron well,

Damon Pistulka  32:03

and you hit on the thing right there that AI can do, that we can’t as humans right now, maybe in the future, but not now, is take these large amounts of data and find the correlations between them, to take input on the next time something happens, and go based on what you’ve shown me, all these other things say we should try this, and wow, the output is incredible when you when you use that.

David Mantey  32:28

No, it was. And we always talk about tribal knowledge, right? And how we’re using the tribal knowledge, and how the machine whisperer, once they retire, so goes all that information. And Kathleen mifford had an incredible response to that. She’s just like, even the machine whisperer was recorded somewhere, and we just got to figure out where that is and feed it on the machine.

Damon Pistulka  32:51

Yeah, that that’s that’s incredible, right there. Because if you could get the tribal knowledge into some sort of system that could help you keep that, that with you, that would be incredible. Yeah, huh? So, David,

Curt Anderson  33:05

let’s go here. So get for the small manufacturer out there. When they hear the letters AI, you know, or they like, they’re like, you know, I don’t know if Damon even talking people like, like, What’s this new thing? They don’t even know what AI is, right? Um, you know, the to step it back, it like, kind of reduce the overwhelm, or like, in not to view it as, like, this forum, substance that’s going to, you know, hurt the company, take away jobs, threaten us, you know, all these, you know, maybe dispel some of these myths, if you will. Yeah, any What are you hearing? Or do you have any tips, advice for again, that small manufacturer, they’re throwing on different hats all day long. I’m doing my own HR. I’m doing my own finance. I’m trying to do marketing five minutes a week. This AI thing, I it’s just too much like, how? How can any tips or advice? Of like, wait a minute, let’s take a look at AI. How this could help you in your company. Maybe pull some things off your plate. Any tips there?

David Mantey  33:55

Well, the first thing is that you’re likely already doing it in some way, because all AI is, is pulling, you know, machine learning, any IoT or industry 4.02 that you’ve already installed, basically pulling all that information together. And Damon, you said it as well. But what was the the last big problem that we had was big data. You know, we had all of these sensors, all these data points, feeding us information. And everyone was just like, well, that good. That’s good. What do we do with it now? And AI is the tool that helps you do that. So I mean, for the smaller manufacturers, I would say you’re likely already doing this. And then when you’re talking about wearing multiple hats, when you’re talking about marketing, I think it’s very fascinating how some people are using AI to develop marketing capital, just because we’ve seen how a lot of people stay away from social media, just because not a combination of not having the time to create social posts or just like not wanting to do it, in general. Yeah, that’s a very easy lift for AI. Where, once you understand how to use something like a chatgpt and get the prompts right, can really help you take your marketing message and kind of recycle it into different posts. When it comes to compliance, when you’re talking about paperwork, I think that there’s going to be a crazy it’s going to be a crazy tool for cutting a lot of that out of day to day operations as well, using it for HR activities, stuff like that. And I do think it’s not, you know, I too, I agreed with the automation fear, automation taking jobs. And, I mean, I think that we’ve seen that a little bit where, you know, some people were retrained, but some people there wasn’t a need for that specific skill set anymore. I do think that AI is truly an augmentation of the worker that is going to help people do a better job, and especially now that we already have an incredible skill shortage in the industry. I mean, we got we got plenty of room to make up in terms of people making being more efficient, and we’re not going to be losing any jobs anytime soon. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  36:03

yeah. That’s the thing with the manufacturing industry is, I mean, we can’t hire people fast enough, the way it is, and people are retiring. I mean, we’ve got the double crunch on it. And if AI can help us, automation can help us other things. It’s, it’s just keeping us out of deeper doo. Doo is all it is. No

David Mantey  36:20

agreed. Like, I joke about how I have friends and family that have fired and rehired workers three, four times now. And hey, you know, if they could have tools that made them just a little bit better. Mm, hmm, you know, it’s a good process. Maybe,

Curt Anderson  36:34

I know, I think this is a phenomenal conversation. And I think for small manufacturers to maybe just, you know, and for small entrepreneurs in general, right to come into it, or for, you know, thought leaders, or anybody in the industry, you know, I was talking to somebody CFO of a manufacturer, and they’re going all in on AI for their invoicing. Like, you know, they don’t want a person individually, step by step, going through every invoice. How can we use AI to, like, systemize, automate, you know, just get the whole invoicing, the PO to invoice system, you know, from scheduling. You know, there’s a lot of opportunities. You mentioned that dreaded. ERP, you know, I think, you know, not our, my area of expertise whatsoever, but there’s a lot of opportunities with AI, with scheduling and David, you know, we’ll start winding down. You mentioned marketing. Let’s come back to repurposing. So again, you guys video podcast, putting out all sorts of content. You talked about AI helping with that marketing message. If that manufacturer is out there saying, hey, wait a minute. I hear what you’re saying, but I’m not sure exactly how to make that applicable. Or how do I apply that to me? You know, you guys do one episode. You’ve done 190 episodes, but you do that episode, you talk for, you know, 30 minutes. You know, we’re here talking for 40 ish minutes, right here. And, like you said, so what David was referring to? Chris Harrington, we did a fun, you know, webinar session, if you will, about e commerce for manufacturers, our dear friend Chris Harrington, she’s taken an hour video and slicing it into chunks and like repurposing it like every other week, right? David, yeah, repurposing

David Mantey  38:03

it, you know, basically summarizing what we talked about, but then also putting an updated spin on it to continue the conversation on LinkedIn. And I think that you can certainly overdo that, but when you’re using it as a jumping off point to continue a conversation. I think that’s truly beneficial. But yes, proceed with caution, because there are plenty of people you know just changing, changing the border color around a photo and resharing it is something new.

Curt Anderson  38:35

That’s that’s a bad thing is that what you’re implying, no, no, no, no.

David Mantey  38:39

I’m just saying, like, when I see it in my LinkedIn feed, like nine times, yeah, yes, yes, I’ve Okay. Thank you. Yep, you know they’re right.

Curt Anderson  38:47

Let’s, let’s fast forward. Where do we see manufacturing.net? What is super exciting on the horizon? Anything that you want to share that’s upcoming for 2025 what’s new and exciting for you. Well,

David Mantey  39:01

what’s new and new and exciting is the smart engagements marketing platform that we’ve been promoting that’s just helping our ad partners get a lot smarter with their ad dollars and their targeting, targeting manufacturing professionals. That’s been something that’s very exciting, and we’ve been working on that under the hood for a long time. And as that’s been rolling out, we’ve seen out, we’ve seen a lot of success there from an editorial standpoint. You know, we’re 10 weeks away, depending on what how things land with the holiday for the 200th episode of The today manufacturing podcast. And you know, if you haven’t caught one yet, I highly encourage you to check one out, even if it is just the 200th because, you know, we have lively conversations. We have a panel of people with various backgrounds and different opinions. And I think that is what keeps it interesting for people, right? You know, we have people on all different part parts of the political spectrum, and so that way you get to kind of, you. See everyone’s point of view when it comes to news. Yeah, we’re also, you know, we’ve launched some new brands, particularly in the medical design engineering community. We’re also looking at launching a couple of new brands next year based off the success of that. And you know, I would just, if anything, come to our website, sign up for our newsletter. Give it a give it a try. A good starting point for a lot of people. You know, we have a daily newsletter that is very popular with our audience. If a daily is too much, I highly recommend signing up for the IEN weekly that is the best of the best content. You get the top 20 stories from the week before, and that is an incredibly popular newsletter. It goes out every Monday morning. And, you know, if anything gives you something to talk about at the at the water cooler, so to speak, for the rest of the week.

Curt Anderson  40:49

Nice. Excellent. Well, David, first off, we congratulate you on 190 episodes. Yes. Don’t wait for the number 200 come out. I actually, I remember when you were getting the podcast started. I think when unite first connected. And so it’s, it’s great, kind of witnessing the journey that you guys have been on. And of course, Anna and Jeff have been on the show with us before. We need to have them come back. So it’s just great to see what you guys have done. Super excited for these new brands that come out. And it just, it just a thrill to see you guys. It’s, it’s so inspiring to see you on the forefront, you know, helping manufacturers with cybersecurity, with, you know, software, you know, supply chain, all the latest and greatest. What’s going on. Damon, your thoughts, your takeaways today.

Damon Pistulka  41:30

I’m just excited we could have you today, David, because it’s so much fun. You know, seeing you guys at the cutting edge of so many different things in manufacturing, hearing you talk going through the website just seeing what’s happening, because it is really the hub for manufacturers to learn what’s happening.

David Mantey  41:47

Thank you very much. No, it’s, honestly, it’s, it’s my pleasure and, man, I would do this recreationally. Man,

Curt Anderson  41:52

yeah. So it’s, you know, and again, for our friends out there, check out manufacturing.net. Go to industrial equipment news. Check out manufacture today, manufacturing podcast. And so, you know, if you have a story, you have a press release, you have something new and exciting. You’re celebrating an anniversary, you’ve got the oldest forklift in the country. Reach out to David and let their team know, because they would love to hear that story. And again, what I a big takeaway that I’d love for people is like, you know, hopefully this lit a fire, or that would encourage you to, you know, stop being a bus cup secret. Get your message out there. Get your story out there. Get your, you know, you’re doing amazing things, and just kind of get that out there. David, last question for you, or I’ll say words, words of wisdom, parting thoughts that you want to share with folks out there today, as we wind down and we’re all here, David, we’ve got David we’ve got David here because we’re celebrating manufacturing month. But words of wisdom, parting thoughts that you’d like to share as we close out.

David Mantey  42:46

Well, parting thoughts is that if you ever want to get in touch with me, I’m David at i n.com you can also reach out to me on LinkedIn. That’s where a lot of people you know, do the collective shouting at me. But you know, when it comes to marketing, when it comes to telling your story. I mentioned it earlier, but it it doesn’t have to be that hard, and you got to start somewhere. There every company, no matter how big or small, has at least one really cool thing about it, and we’d love to tell that story, and we’d love it if you let us help you do it. I mean, a lot of lot of people think that when it comes to marketing or getting spreading the word a little bit that it’s a heavy lift and it’s an expensive lift, but, you know, from an editorial perspective, you know, talking to me is free, you know, let’s, let’s set up an interview and write an article, because our readers love it and we want to get more of it. That’s

Curt Anderson  43:37

right. So, David few, huge shout out appreciation. And we just, we love our friendship with you. Just huge fans. Admire what you and the team are doing at manufacturing.net we wish you guys just continued massive success. Keep the the fire burning, and we, we can’t wait to have you back on here. What’s new in 2025

David Mantey  43:56

so Hey, looking forward to it, man. Thank you very much for having me. Alright.

Curt Anderson  44:00

So alright guys, we’ll close out today. Thank you, everybody in the chat box. We appreciate you. We appreciate David. And just like David, you know, we love to share every episode. Just go out and be someone’s inspiration, just like David was today for us. And how about a big round of applause for David, just crushing it, hitting the got the golf clap going. So Alright guys, we’re going to wind down. We’re back here Friday with another incredible, wonderful guest, and we just wish you guys a phenomenal week. You.