Meet Kirk Davis at CAMPS: A Fierce Advocate for Washington Manufacturers
What does it take to strengthen American manufacturing, build a thriving workforce, and help manufacturers compete in an ever-changing marketplace?
Meet Kirk J. Davis, Executive Director of CAMPS – Center for Advanced Manufacturing Puget Sound, a passionate advocate for Washington State manufacturers and the people who power the industry.
Join Curt Anderson and Damon Pistulka for an inspiring conversation with Kirk about his mission to champion manufacturers, strengthen industry partnerships, and create exciting opportunities for manufacturing growth throughout Washington State.
Discover how Kirk and the CAMPS team are:
– Championing Washington manufacturers and helping them thrive in a competitive marketplace
– Connecting manufacturers with valuable resources, partnerships, and growth opportunities
– Building a collaborative manufacturing community that encourages innovation and shared success
Kirk also shares valuable insights on AI strategies, leadership, collaboration, and the power of bringing manufacturers together to overcome challenges and uncover new opportunities.
Get ready to be inspired by Kirk Davis and discover how CAMPS is making a powerful difference for Washington manufacturers!
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Transcription
Curt Anderson 00:01
Hey, welcome to Stop Being the Best Kept Secret. I’m with my dear buddy, my partner in crime, Damon Pistulka. Damon, how are you, dude?
Damon Pistulka 00:08
I’m doing great, Curt. Excited,
Curt Anderson 00:10
man. We we have a a fellow. If you live in Seattle, are you a Seattlean, Seattleite? What are we’re
Kirk Davis 00:16
just south of Seattle? Yeah.
Curt Anderson 00:18
So what if you live in Seattle? What are you?
Kirk Davis 00:21
Seattle light. You’re a Seattle
Curt Anderson 00:23
light. So we have we have a couple of Seattle lights, if you will, here. So my dear friend, we have a repeat offender today, Kirk Davis from Camps. We’re going to dive into CAMPS. Curt, how are you, dude?
Kirk Davis 00:34
Great, great to be here with both of you.
Curt Anderson 00:36
Oh my goodness gracious! So just absolutely thrilled. So we have a lot to cover in a short period of time, and since since the last time you were on the show, and I think that was several years ago. If we go back in time, a
Kirk Davis 00:48
little bit ago, yeah,
Curt Anderson 00:49
little little bit. Now, tell us a little bit about Camp’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing, the Puget Sound. You have a wonderful background. Going like you have a history in Hawaii. We were both SBDC advisors at the same time. Like you were a banker, you have a great history. Tell us a little bit. How did you get into manufacturing? Your passion for manufacturing, and then we’re going to lead right into camps.
Kirk Davis 01:12
Yeah. Well. Well. First of all, what a pleasure. I can’t. I didn’t come through manufacturing. I came through finance, actually, And banking, banking was the start. The SBDC, as you mentioned, I was the CFO for some small companies, including a manufacturing company. And and of course, the way I think progress really happens in our careers a lot of times is connections. So I had been friends with a person who started camps. It’s been going about 18 years now, and for the last eight, I’ve been the executive director. And my good friend started this 18 years ago, but the idea was to to be a place where manufacturers could get together and learn from each other and connect with each other. So we’re not we we’re not doing political advocacy. We’re trying to do really practical programs that benefit manufacturers, and more importantly, I’m trying to actually draw on the capabilities of of our members. So this morning we just had an innovation forum where we had one of our IT specialists, who’s a member of CAPS, share what they’re doing for manufacturers on an IT CMMC AI basis and anyway it goes on and on. I meet great people. I I connect with leaders and people who are changing the world. And it’s not only Elon Musk that’s changing the world. There are many incredible leaders who are coming up with new ideas, new tools, new products, new innovations that are changing our world, and so watch out.
Curt Anderson 02:47
Yeah, and I’ll tell you first off, follow join follow Kirk or connect with Kirk on LinkedIn. Do yourself a favor, Kirk. You are all over the place. You’re working closely with like Impact Washington, other associations, workforce. I mean, like it. It’s hard to keep up with you. Do you? Apparently, you don’t sleep. Is that correct?
Kirk Davis 03:06
My wife would agree with you. Hey, I don’t sleep.
Curt Anderson 03:10
Yeah. But if you don’t mind, I know you’re. We’re going to go through a little demo. But what I’d like to do is, you were as you were talking. I just want to pull up the camps website right there, and you can see that. So your mission and what’s I’m involved with my local manufacturers association and Dame and I we collaborate and we have sponsors for other associations. What I love is like your clear, concise focus. You talk about like you know you’re not big on policy and advocacy that type of thing. That’s not your jam. What you shared with me previously and you’ve got it right here on the website. Let’s talk a little bit about the mission at Camps. And so, first and foremost, if you’re a manufacturer in the Puget Sound area, you absolutely need to connect with Kirk. Secondly, if you’re part of an association, or if you’re not, don’t belong in an association. This is a great session to kind of learn of the benefits of being part of a manufacturing association. Kirk, just hear a little bit about your mission and what you guys are delivering for your your members?
Kirk Davis 04:02
Well, I’m going to start off a little bit with a sad story. But manufacturing about 20 years ago was 15 of Washington’s GDP. Today it’s about 7. Wow! And you know, I mean, it has grown. If you look at it, you know, a little bit. We’ve we’ve had some going forward, going back. We’re very aerospace dependent, right, on Boeing in this region. So, however, you know, we’re really wanting to support the growth and success of manufacturers. And there’s so many uncertainties and crosswinds and headwinds that that come up, like with tariffs and you know economic uncertainty, supply chain uncertainty. So you know we’re battling through all of all of these things, and then I hear a lot about regulations. I hear a lot about taxes, and so we again we’re trying to use the strength of our members to help manufacturers navigate. All of these uncertainties, all of these headwinds, and and we’re seeing it. You know, we’re we’re actually seeing people come out of the woodwork with with incredible capabilities, new innovations. I can’t believe the conversations I’m having with with such good people, and we have a great board. So so we’re led by a board. One of the we have several benefits for manufacturers, but one of them is our Camps Health Trust, and that’s one where you get real tangible return on your money. I mean, connecting and you know relying on the the strengths of our membership is good, but but when you can actually join the Camps Health Trust and save 10s of 1000s of dollars a year on your on your employee, you know, health benefits. It’s a it’s a huge direct ROI. So yeah, there’s there’s just so many ways to benefit by being a member of
Curt Anderson 05:50
CAMS. Yeah, absolutely love it. And so, and Damon, any thoughts? I know you’re this is right in your backyard. You work with a number of manufacturers over the years in the area. Your thoughts on what Curt’s doing here for for camps?
Damon Pistulka 06:04
No, it’s it’s it’s so important for us to keep the manufacturers moving forward themselves. But not only that, bringing awareness to people around because there’s. I mean, you you’ve got kids. I’ve got kids. Curt’s got kids. How many of the our kids, our friends’ kids, any kids that we know of decided to do a manufacturing career when you saw them not do it and go out and do something that we look at and go, that really isn’t as productive as they could be, and I I just it just drives me insane when I when I when I hear somebody that didn’t get exposed to that
Kirk Davis 06:47
yes
Damon Pistulka 06:48
and it could have been a wonderful long term career for
Kirk Davis 06:52
well I think that I mean I mean I I meet these workforce people and they’re builders they’re innovators yes they love to they love to tinker you know they’ve got they’ve got shop tools in their garage, and they they like to make stuff. So I mean, the the attitude of of manufacturing is let’s make a better world. Let’s build a better world.
Damon Pistulka 07:10
Yeah,
Curt Anderson 07:11
yeah, I love that. And so, Kirk, I want to slide into if you take a look at your programs here of as I’m sharing on screen. Again, takeaway that I love is that you’re working fiercely on connection. How can you get your clients involved, vibrant, educating, networking with each other, finding out you know maybe there’s folks that could be doing business with each other. Secondly, is you’re helping from a finance standpoint, like where are there funding opportunities? You also shared like you’ve become a tech guru. You’re an AI. I’m going to say you’re very impressive. What what you’re doing with AI? I’m going to get into this here. So you’ve actually you’re delivering programs for your folks, trying to educate your members. What do you want to share here as far as what we’re covering? Your your main initiatives that we that we’re discussing here.
Kirk Davis 07:58
Yeah, our main our main initiatives, and there are several. But like our Cant Cell Trust was the main initiative, and then our our capital accelerator. We’re renaming that to our capital access program, but we’re trying to make it really easy for manufacturers to figure out how to get more funding and keep more cash in their pocket, so you know they can invest in innovations, growth, R and D, workforce, the things that they need to to work on. So we’re really hearing from manufacturers the real struggle. There’s a statistic that about 85% of of manufacturers are under 100 employees. You know, and it’s a and it’s a number close to 80% that are under 50 employees. I mean, it’s a it’s a tough business. It’s a it’s a complex business, and it’s a cash flow heavy business, right? So, so as the business grows, complexity complexity in the business grows, and then and in the finance. So we’re trying to make the finance portion easier and support
Damon Pistulka 09:01
it, and I’m
Kirk Davis 09:01
really excited. It’s not out yet, but fairly soon I’ll have a remake of this page. And we’ve got we’ve got a way to make capital access for manufacturers really plain, really easy, and a you know checklists and connections to the experts who can help them navigate. Now, I mean, workforce grants, you know, bank loans could be equity investing, merger acquisitions, tax incentives. So, you know, our whole idea is to get them in front of all the ideas that could improve their cash situation.
Curt Anderson 09:34
Yeah, this is just so powerful, and it’s exactly just what the doctor ordered. Damon, your thoughts?
Damon Pistulka 09:41
Well, people didn’t go into manufacturing to be finance experts, right? And and like you said, their next your next best customer could put you in a heck of a cash pinch just because we get to fund the labor and materials, everything before that actually delivers to somebody. Yeah, and you know, and that’s where. You run into this this challenge that I just got a new million dollar job and that’s huge for us, but I’ve got 300, $400,000 that I’ve got to put down or get pretty close to putting that down before I can deliver it, and then I need to wait to get paid. You know, there’s that’s the reality is there that growth costs money, and it and it’s really hard when you don’t have access to capital.
Kirk Davis 10:24
Well, Damon, I I find that our manufacturers don’t have a shortage of of job opportunities, right, or or work opportunities, but they they have to say no to certain jobs that that you know they really just can’t afford to do.
Damon Pistulka 10:36
Yes,
Curt Anderson 10:37
yeah. So all right, so let’s dive into the hey Damon, have you heard about this thing called AI? Are you familiar with AI at all?
Damon Pistulka 10:44
I’ve I’ve seen some things on TV. You’ve seen some things
Curt Anderson 10:47
on TV about it, right? So, Kirk, you are doing a phenomenal job spearheading exactly what your clients need. Again, just what the doctor ordered. Share a little bit, and then I’m I’m going to stop sharing because we have a demo we’re going to get into, but talk a little bit about how did you come up with this idea for your AI leadership roadmap?
Kirk Davis 11:08
Well, first of all, one of our we we have a program for corporate annual sponsors, and one of our our corporate annual sponsors is Microsoft. And I have to give a shout out to Simon Floyd, who’s the general manager manufacturing for Microsoft, who has gotten behind us, sponsored us. He’s given several presentations. We just had our our annual our annual conference like a week ago, and he was the wrap up keynote speaker where he just shared incredible insights. So I have to thank him, and then some of the manufacturers I visit are showing me what they’re doing with Claude Code in their own business and how they’re creating websites, applications, dashboards, landing pages, inventory tracking systems. I mean, they’re doing incredible stuff that they that they make there themselves, right? It’s custom made software by them, and so with inspiration, and and I’ve got to give a shout out to you know to Simon for his incredible leadership, inspiration, ideas, and then Craig Hannah is another one of our members who showed me what exactly what he’s doing with Cloud Code, inspired me to dig in and get into building websites, building applications, building dashboards. It’s incredible if he. you haven’t done it already, I happen to use Grok Build for the same thing he was showing me with with Claude Code, but but now I can create you know landing pages like this. But one of the things I really learned from Simon was this idea that AI by itself probably isn’t going to help manufacturers a lot. I mean, a little bit, you know, a little bit of productivity gains is okay, but really, we’ve got to start with the real business problem. You know, what is the real constraint, and where is that information, the data within their within their organization? So, one of the things that we’ll talk about when we go through the roadmap. If you want to switch over to that, or I’ve got it here. Yeah, go ahead
Curt Anderson 13:02
and pull it up, Curt, please.
Kirk Davis 13:03
Yeah, this my inspiration for the AI leadership roadmap was to figure out how. Let’s see. Here we go. Let’s see. Make sure I’ve got the right thing here. I I don’t know if I’m here. There we go. There we go. Okay, got it. Yeah. So the idea behind the roadmap was really how how do manufacturers kind of get started with identifying what’s going to make a difference? And I think of it in terms of you should be able to grow your business with or without AI. You know, you should be able to focus. You would focus on the same things with or without AI. So this this roadmap, this is the front page of the roadmap. This is free to our members. We charge $1,000 to non-members, but it’s free to our members as a member benefit. And we have these learning modules, starting with the company value, not the technology. Investing in the people and culture. That’s lesson two, lesson three, turning existing data into insight. That’s one of the things I learned from Craig Cannello. Was he he he showed me how he just connected the data he had into his AI, and it gave him insights. But of course, the data is not clean. It’s not great. It’s not set up right. But then he would just ask AI, “What do I need to do to clean up my data, so you know he could assign somebody to that, and that that person could then take the feedback from the AI and start making their their information better. As the information got better, they got more insights. So I mean, I’ve heard about this being used with inventory management, SKU management, you know, RFPs, RFQs, you know, machine machine data, you name it. I mean, wherever your data lies, I recommend just just dump it into AI. And of course, if you’re a defense contractor, you contract with the government, you have to follow the CMMC rules. You need the guardrails and. So we just had a fabulous presentation today on how these defense contractors can, you know, follow the guardrails of CMMC, and but still have access to AI and and use it to their advantage. So he gave some some great examples of that. But once you kind of get the the safety part of AI sorted out, and this is something that we all agreed on in the call today, and that is you. I mean, you can buy technology today with AI features, you know, and you can get Microsoft 365 Copilot, and you can do all these things that’s already ready-made. But until you get into it and start doing stuff yourself, you don’t know what the possibilities are. So people are doing things now that we didn’t even know was possible because they’re experimenting, and that’s what we we recommend: get in there and and and put your data in and start experimenting. But I’m going to share lesson four here, and this this is the idea of four operating levers. And each one of these lessons has a video. This is a video. I won’t play it, but also has an infographic where you can just grasp the ideas simply. But we’re really focused on the flow, the labor, the quality, and the decisions.
Damon Pistulka 16:13
Yep.
Kirk Davis 16:15
And I mean, there’s there are so many places where you have information that you can just stick into your AI and start to get information on optimizing the flow. And what we’re really thinking about there is reducing the lead time from the time you get the order to the time you collect the cash, right? What can we do to lessen that? And something Simon shared in in our conference I thought was fascinating, is that AI is going to handle all of the work that happens between the machines. So you know, today an operator they’ll work, you know, they’ll do their work, but now they’ve got to stop somewhere along the line and record what happened, you know, enter the data, and that’s not everybody’s favorite part. But over time, as we can get AI or AI agents to do the work between the machines, we’re going to find those lead times shrinking very, very quickly. And we use AI to help us with scheduling. You know, we we have it to optimize. You know, perhaps floor layout or you know equipment. And and so many shops are high high volume or high high mix low volume shops where they’re doing a lot of different jobs and they have to do changeovers you know from this to that, but yet we can still take advantage of doing it the very best we can. And again, the better cash position we can put ourselves in, you know, I think that that we open up the doors of opportunities to bigger deals and bigger jobs and higher volume jobs that we wouldn’t normally get, you know. And quality is one of those things. I think that it’s hard. I mean, because machines drift, and and I mean, you know, quality is something you have to monitor all the time, and then you know, clients give you feedback. So one of the things we’re noticing with quality right now, is the ability to capture the data we have, but to combine that with the email feedback we’re getting from our clients on quality. And so, when you combine, here’s what we know inside the shop, and then here’s what our clients are telling us. Now we can get to the information faster. And quality and on-time delivery are those two things that that if you if you have the operational excellence for high you know high quality and and high delivery on time, that’s what opens up the word of mouth and also opens up new markets for you. So it’s you know really foundational stuff. It’s it all of this kind of leads to better decisions about better operational excellence, and then we can focus on the things that I think, Curt, that you and Damon bring to the manufacturers, and that is, if you’ve got good quality, you’ve got good on-time delivery, then that story needs to be told. Yes, and I think that what you’re doing now, and I’m really excited about what you’re doing, is you’re helping manufacturers tell their story, and you’re helping them also find new markets, maybe new retail markets. Instead of going wholesale, they can actually directly go to the marketplace, or you know, or get found. Right? They can get found online, and these things make a real difference. And feeding your own your own RFP or RFQ pipeline. So anyway, I think we all we all play together in this, right?
Curt Anderson 19:23
Yeah, absolutely. And I think the my when my first off, thank you. This is such a masterclass, Damon. Like every time I’m on a call with Kirk, like I’m just like I’m a sponge. Just like it’s just it’s time to learn, right? And what I love, Kirk, is you know right on their website, you’re like you know it’s don’t focus on the AI. Focus on the problem and how AI can solve that. So you know, in in Curt, I don’t know if you can answer. Like, so with your members, are you finding are there a lot of folks that have been I don’t know resistant, kind of new to AI? Like, what do you or is everybody kind of embracing it? What’s the pulse that you’re hearing?
Kirk Davis 19:57
Well, they’re curious. They’re curious. Yep. You know they’re they’re curious, so I call that my audience. My audience is the AI curious.
Damon Pistulka 20:05
Yep.
Kirk Davis 20:06
However, unless you have somebody who kind of shows you what they’re doing, it’s hard to to grasp. Unless you’re one of these real innovator experimenters and you’re you’re willing to crash and burn and you know learn as you go.
Curt Anderson 20:18
Yeah.
Kirk Davis 20:18
But but I think that the manufacturers I work with are questioning. They’re just they’re they’re AI curious, but they’re questioning like, what does it do, and where do you apply it? And it it seems slow to show real P and L results, right? It’s like so like I can’t tie my AI activity back to an improvement in my in my profit. So what am I doing, and why am I doing it? So we’re really looking for those test cases where we can actually implement AI, and they’re watching a lead time shorten. They’re watching their profitability go up. They’re watching more, you know, productivity per labor dollars and labor hours, and you know those those traditional measures.
Curt Anderson 21:01
Yeah, that’s phenomenal. Did you? And I believe you mentioned you want to share a couple more, right?
Kirk Davis 21:06
Just this one here is create a regular review rhythm. So it’s it’s not enough it’s not enough really to to implement AI into your system, but you have to have a continual review of what it did, you know, it’s a human in the loop is kind of the you know one of the terms, but the idea is is is you’re setting up AI systems and AI agents within your business who are doing some of this work between the machines, and then your your systematically you and your team should be systematically reviewing, you know, is it correct? You know, how’s it doing? Do we see opportunities for improvement? But I, I feel like for all of us, and I, I probably need to do a better job of of education and putting more of this out there. But without a systematic review of, you know, what what are what did we want it to do? The end state, right? What did we want it to do versus what it’s doing, and how do we bridge the gap? Without that systematic review, then things drift really fast, really easy, and end up in the you know the gutter or the borrow pit, right? And then the very last part of this is setting up a continual improvement system, so it’s referred to as an AI flywheel. So I mean, you know, there I think there’s a learning curve getting it set up. You feed your your bad information into AI, and then you improve that information as you go. But you get it to a point where the information’s getting good. The AI is getting good. The information, the reporting, the dashboards, you know, the communication. A lot of times, what we’re finding is AI can see something and then send an email to the right person to take care of it. And you’ve got that review system. But the idea is you probably you know have to be in a continual learning loop now more than ever, of how are we going to continually improve our overall system, the rhythm, you know, and you’re going to have to have discussions about it. And and so the manufacturers I’m working with are telling me that this is giving them incredible feedback, information, visibility that they’re able to have conversations about why did this happen and and what how do we keep that from happening again and you know do we need to make an adjustment from this or or are we measuring the right things so all of these conversations kind of come up in your AI AI continuous improvement program yeah and
Curt Anderson 23:40
the thing I love, I love all of that. I like and the the the screen you had previously. I you you you and I went over that together. Very powerful. Here, I love how you have the scorecard for success. You know, so again, it’s not you know a nice to have. It’s like, and I think the big thing is once a entrepreneur, once a business owner, or folks on the floor, once they see the benefit or the efficiency, or gee, I don’t have to do this task anymore, or gee, now AI has my back. I think once they get a taste of that, then okay, now we’re off to the races. What’s your what are your thoughts?
Kirk Davis 24:15
Well, I I was asked recently to speak at Renton Technical College, which I really appreciate. I was in a room full of of AI academics, and they were they were on it. I mean, they they were they were fantastic. The the people I met, the things they could do, and the things they were teaching their students. So yeah, you’ve got people coming out of these schools who are going to be really on fire for for AI. But one of the things that I mentioned to them is we’re noticing that AI is not replacing jobs. It’s for small to medium-sized companies, right? Maybe for big companies, it’s replacing jobs. But for the small to medium-sized, what it’s doing is it’s replacing workflows within the jobs. And I’ve always thought. I mean, I’ve always dealt with my job description. I gave people job descriptions. I managed them to their job. Descriptions, and so I was I was always thinking jobs, but the truth is every job description is broken down into workflows, and I didn’t realize that till I started working with AI and going, okay, this this isn’t just a job; this is a workflow within my job. And now the question is: is how do I get my AI to to do things in my workflows, so this particular workflow didn’t change my job, it didn’t change my responsibility, but what it changed is how I do my job, and now I’m actually more free to do something more valuable. And so, so essentially, this when we learn which workflows AI can actually take over, or or at least enable people to do it faster, better, more accurately. Then then it’ll come into role redefinition. We’re probably three to five years, probably from getting to a place where we’re going to have to redefine people’s roles and jobs based on. I think people are going to, and this is what I told Rent and Technical College. I said your students need to come out with what I call a career AI companion, because when I, as a human, plug into this new company, I’m plugging into their AI. But when I get a new job somewhere else or move up, I need an AI that follows my career, not just you know if I unplug from their AI, I’m I’m I’m relatively powerless. But if I have my own personal career AI, where what I learn, my unique knowledge stays with me throughout my career and compounds. And that’s what we’re looking for is that compounding effect. So, I actually talk to people about developing a second brain and a career companion AI that stays with them regardless of where they work, and then the the big idea is you become increasingly valuable. And I think in the future people will say, “Tell me about you and your AI capabilities.”
Damon Pistulka 26:57
Yeah, yeah, it is that. In it’s interesting that that concept really has developed so recently.
Kirk Davis 27:08
Yes,
Damon Pistulka 27:09
because you know six eight months ago didn’t talk about it nearly as much, and now it’s it’s mainstream, right? When you’re especially like if you’re in a business, if you’re not developing that knowledge base around your business and and the processes that you’re working on with AI and that continues to evolve. You’re missing a great opportunity, missing out on a great opportunity because we start over at zero. Our AI starts over zero all the time. If it knows I’m doing this over here, this over here, this over here, and how it all flows together now, I start with that knowledge instead, and can go much farther, much faster.
Kirk Davis 27:44
Yes.
Curt Anderson 27:46
Yeah, I love it, Curt. Do you mind if you hit the back button? Here’s a question for you, and I want to be mindful of your time. We’ll start winding down here again. So this is open to any manufacturer, so you don’t have to be in the Washington, Seattle area. This is a great
Kirk Davis 28:02
picture. Yeah. As a matter of fact, I’ll just I’ll show people how to access it here. And you you started us off there, but on the front of our website, this purple button will take you to the introduction, and the the idea is that there’s a $995 purchase price if you’re not a member of CAMS, or it’s a member benefit if you are a member of CAMS.
Curt Anderson 28:27
Yeah, and so Curt, if you scroll down, so let’s why don’t we wind down on this? Let’s take the manufacturer six, 810 employees, right? Like you said, you know, vast majority are 2020 employees and us.
Damon Pistulka 28:40
Yeah.
Curt Anderson 28:41
So you know they’re they’re 10 employees. They’re kind of bussing, you know, at the seams. Really don’t want to hire thin margins, like you said, changing jobs over. A lot of you know all the things, all the challenges. What’s a great starting point from your perspective for them if they they’ve done zero with AI, which really has put them at a competitive disadvantage. What’s a great place to start? What’s step one that you would advise?
Kirk Davis 29:06
You know, depending on their their current technology. But Craig Hanello shared this with me that that he had just taken his ERP, which didn’t have a great dashboard system at
Curt Anderson 29:16
all,
Kirk Davis 29:16
but he just literally had a spreadsheet of all the data from his ERP, and then he just uploaded that into Claude, and then said, “Tell you know, what do you see here?” And he said he was stunned as he got visibility, and then he said, “You know, turn this into a dashboard,” and and then he was able to have those conversations with his staff, and they they all know the problems because they live in the problems. So then, he said the conversations, the visibility, and then what to focus on. But he said what he found was very interesting was they didn’t always have common definitions. So, so when you talk about this is just one of his quick. I’ll just say this quick story, but his system said they had very poor. On-time delivery, but what they found out is that they actually they actually completed the jobs on time. But the customers were picking up their items two days later, and the system was calling that a late delivery. But he said that that you know just the getting the conversation, the vocabulary, the KPIs. What did we mean by this, and how do we measure it? Those conversations become very valuable.
Curt Anderson 30:23
Yeah, and you know this could be a whole session in itself. You’ve done a phenomenal job. Again, for folks that go to camps, you’ll see the history company when the organization founded. You know there was a need, like manufacturers were complaining, like, “Hey, you know, we’re we’re struggling against foreign competition, how can we? You know, we’re stronger together. Camp step in, like you said, your friend and you coming in as the executive director leader extraordinaire. You’ve taken to a whole different level. What’s been the key to your success of building camps?
Kirk Davis 30:56
Just one thing, and that is, I really believe that we’re better together, and I and I really believe that everybody brings different strengths. So I just I want to get to know people’s strengths. I want to get to know how do we use that for the betterment of the community. But yeah, we’ve tripled the size of membership since I started here, and it’s still growing. We’re looking now to quadruple the membership. But people are great. I think people are the solution to the problem, and so I just like to to utilize other people’s capabilities and strengths.
Curt Anderson 31:28
Yeah, what an inspiration! I don’t know if people caught that. You know, like 300% increase. So you know, there’s a will. There’s a way. And Kirk, let’s close out on this. What are you super excited about with the future in camps, manufacturing, AI, all the above. What are you super fired up about?
Kirk Davis 31:46
You know, I I really I really think that the future belongs to the builders. I think that that that people who innovate, people who create and build. You know, I understand. You know what happened? Why why we shipped all of our manufacturing jobs off offshore? But now the fact that we’re trying to bring them onshore, secure our our supply chains, we’re we’re trying to become more self reliant as a nation. I’ll just tell you that everybody I’m talking to feels that way, and they are excited for the future. Things are getting better. Things are improving by every measure, and now I’m looking for with what we can do with AI, our current human intelligence combined with AI or SI, depending on whatever people are calling it today, and agents. I think that we can do more faster. So I actually I think in these next five years we’re going to see a real acceleration of productivity, but building and yeah, I think manufacturing is the new high tech high ground. I think we’re watching so much technology come into manufacturing that if people want to work in high tech or in physical AI, so to speak, they’re going to be working in manufacturing. Very cool. Drop
Curt Anderson 33:03
the mic right there, Damon. Dude, you heard that first. What a great line, right? Manufacturing is the new high tech. I love that. It’s a great line. I don’t know if so, Kirk. Thank you, Damon. Parting thoughts, words of wisdom that you want to share with our conversation with Kirk.
Damon Pistulka 33:18
I just love to see Kirk how you out there showing manufacturers these practical ways to implement AI because it’s not something that’s out there for someone else. It’s for them, and it’s for them just like they got interested in what they’re doing, how they’re building, the things they’re putting together. If they put a bit of that effort into AI, it’s going to pay off big for them over
Kirk Davis 33:39
time. I agree.
Curt Anderson 33:40
Yep. Awesome. Hey, I’m going to sneak in one last question. We got Kirk. Best business advice that you’ve ever been given. If you could share with folks, your younger self, maybe young entrepreneurs out there, best business advice that you’d like to share.
Kirk Davis 33:55
I do think that our earning is limited by our learning. Ooh, and we have never had such an unprecedented opportunity with AI and internet and YouTube to learn anything. You can learn anything, and you can accelerate your learning. I keep finding where my learning is the bottleneck
Damon Pistulka 34:17
because
Kirk Davis 34:18
the information’s out there, and you can, I think, business leaders should be thinking three years in advance. I think that they should be working and iterating with AI to say, you know, what are the constraints in my growth and learn. Just attack your constraints, learn, and the more, the faster you learn, the the faster you’re going to earn.
Curt Anderson 34:42
Wow! All right, what a great way to close out. So, Curt, thank you, my friend. Appreciate you more than you can imagine. You, your six kids, your nine grandchildren. You got some grandchildren drawings behind you. So, thank you. I know how busy you are. Thank you for taking the time, Damon. I don’t take that lightly. We’re going to ask you. Hang out for one second, and I invite anybody or everybody out there connect with Kirk on LinkedIn. Go to camps, check out the AI leadership roadmap, and you will thank us later. It is a powerful tool. I’ve gone through it many times, and it is a game changer. So, Kirk, we’ll have you back soon. Hang out with us one second, and God bless everybody. We wish you a wonderful, amazing rest of your day.
Damon Pistulka 35:20
Thanks, everyone.
Kirk Davis 35:21
Thank you.