U.S. Manufacturing Today

In this episode of US Manufacturing Today (powered by Veryable), Matt Horine interviews Josh Waldron, who describes how a car accident at 15 left him paralyzed and how he chose to remove the “comfortable retreat” by destroying his wheelchair to commit to walking, shaping his approach to challenges. Josh recounts building a precision manufacturing company from a garage during the 2008 recession, learning CNC operations from scratch, driving growth through vertical integration, and turning in-house anodizing into a profit center. He explains misconceptions about needing all answers upfront, critiques “best practices,” and shares his Productive Difficulty framework and a 2x2 tool for prioritizing work. The conversation covers AI as bandwidth expansion, retention through pay, recognition, and autonomy, navigating firearms regulation, lobbying to change laws, and his book “On Choosing Hard Things,” plus a recommendation to run a cultural audit. Timestamps 00:00 Welcome to the Podcast 00:41 Josh Waldron Intro 01:26 Accident and Resolve 05:00 Starting from Scratch 08:06 Vertical Integration Wins 11:03 Ditching Best Practices 13:27 Productive Difficulty Framework 19:56 Two by Two Priorities 22:52 AI and Bandwidth 25:56 Retention and Culture 33:50 Hard Corners Manufacturing 37:57 Changing Laws Long Game 43:25 30 Day Action Step 44:26 Book and Closing Links Josh’s Website Josh on LinkedIn Hard is Fun Revitalizing US Manufacturing⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign Up on the Veryable Platform

In this episode of US Manufacturing Today (powered by Veryable), host Matt Horine speaks with Brian Fielkow, author of Making Safety Happen, about leading safety as a leadership discipline and enterprise risk issue. Fielkow lays out why safety must function as a non‑negotiable core value that never competes with production pressure, and how boards and executives ultimately shape safety outcomes through the behaviors they reward, tolerate, or ignore. The conversation explores how fast‑growing operations can scale without sacrificing stability by balancing offense and defense, how frontline leaders drive real cultural change, and how applying Just Culture helps organizations distinguish honest mistakes from reckless choices while preserving accountability and trust. Timestamps 00:00 Podcast Intro 02:03 Safety as Core Value 04:39 Retiring the Word Accident 06:43 Boards Own Safety 11:51 Scaling Without Breaking 15:39 New Leader First 90 Days 18:33 Gold Letter Engagement 21:49 Safety Committees Done Right 23:45 Psychological Safety on Floor 26:48 Process Over Paperwork 30:56 Just Culture Accountability 35:14 Protecting Everyone On Site 38:37 30 Day First Step 41:56 Podcast Outro Links Brian’s Website Brian on linkedin Making Safety Happen on Amazon Revitalizing US Manufacturing⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign Up on the Veryable Platform

In this episode of U.S. Manufacturing Today (powered by Veryable), host Matt Horine interviews Chris Hale, founder and CEO of Klear, about how reshoring and rapid scaling compress timelines and expose a mismatch between fast-moving factory operations and slow, backward-looking traditional banking. Hale explains that step-change growth driven by aerospace, defense, energy, and other demand can break order-to-cash cycles, stressing suppliers, buyers, and internal coordination, and argues this is an operational risk shared by plant managers and finance. Timestamps 00:00 Podcast Intro 00:41 Reshoring Speed Crunch 01:52 What Breaks First 04:05 Banks Versus Step Change 05:58 Relay Race Capital Flow 08:52 Origins In Global Supply 12:07 Building Klear Platform 13:33 Critical Minerals Finance 17:14 Geopolitics And Small Suppliers 22:58 Right Sized Capital 27:58 Back Office Fix 31:38 Series A Update 32:53 30 Day Action Advice 34:24 Where To Find Klear 35:00 Podcast Outro Links Klear Website Klear on LinkedIn Chris on LinkedIn Forbes Article Revitalizing US Manufacturing⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign Up on the Veryable Platform

In this episode of U.S. Manufacturing Today (powered by Veryable), host Matt Horine interviews Roei Ganzarski, CEO of Alitheon, about the trillion-dollar global problem of counterfeiting and gray-market fraud and why it is a safety and national security issue in industries like aerospace, automotive, and healthcare. Ganzarski shares examples including end-of-life aircraft engine parts sold as new and fake titanium used in aircraft, and explains Alitheon’s FeaturePrint technology, which authenticates individual items using standard cameras by capturing unique, random manufacturing “tolerance” features to create a digital fingerprint with zero false positives. Timestamps 00:00 Podcast Intro 00:41 Counterfeit Crisis 01:44 Fraud and Gray Market 04:21 Career Path to Alitheon 09:11 Aerospace Scandals 11:44 FeaturePrint Explained 18:15 Why Labels Fail 23:48 Wear and Tear Handling 28:03 New Manufacturer Promises 28:59 Camera Based Traceability 29:17 Warranty Return Fraud 32:15 Fingerprinting Against Fakes 35:29 Supply Chain Risk Trends 38:13 Supplier Competitive Edge 40:04 EV Battery Safety Risks 43:10 Compliance Beyond QR Codes 44:30 Blockchain Physical Gap 47:28 Proxy On Proxy Failures 51:10 30 Day Action Plan 52:56 Pilot And Production Setup 55:19 Traceability For QA Recalls 57:44 Podcast Outro Links Alitheon Website Alitheon on LinkedIn Roei on LinkedIn Revitalizing US Manufacturing⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign Up on the Veryable Platform

In this episode of U.S. Manufacturing Today (powered by Veryable), host Matt Horine challenges the common claim that America has a labor shortage, arguing instead that the real problem is a shortage of incentives, reward, and ownership in tackling productivity. He says true labor scarcity would force wages up, yet manufacturing wages have barely risen in real terms for decades, while only genuinely scarce skilled trades show meaningful wage acceleration. Horine also questions the credibility of jobs data, citing large downward revisions to non-farm payrolls, and argues many “unfilled roles” are actually utilization and demand-forecasting issues on the shop floor. He proposes measuring labor by output rather than headcount, building more flexible labor capacity and output-based pay, and contends that relying on imported labor or visa programs suppresses wage signals. He points to new SNAP work requirements reducing benefit rolls by 5.3 million as evidence that participation responds to incentives. Timestamps 00:00 Podcast Intro 00:41 Labor Shortage Myth 02:52 Meritocracy Reframed 04:11 Jobs Data Reality Check 05:06 Wages and Skill Signals 06:14 Headcount vs Output 07:31 Flex Labor Playbook 08:18 Cheap Labor Hypocrisy 09:54 SNAP Experiment Evidence 11:13 Real Fix and Wrap-Up 13:25 Outro and Resources Links Matt on LinkedIn Revitalizing US Manufacturing⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign Up on the Veryable Platform