250: How to Uncover Your "Hidden Factory" and Extract More Value from the Plant Floor featuring Tri Tech Automation

As manufacturers are under pressure to do more with less and somehow fill roles in an increasingly smaller talent pool, unlocking your “hidden factory” could be the solution.

To celebrate episode 250, Chris Luecke returns home to St. Louis to meet with some of his early career mentors from Rockwell Automation – now heading up Tri Tech Automation.

Ryan Williams, Director of Innovation and Solution Sales, Adam Ruebsam, President, and Luke Manier, Managing Director, sit down at Urban Chestnut Brewing Company for a trip down memory lane and a look forward to the future of manufacturing.

The hidden factory concept is simple – how do we uncover the untapped potential in our existing resources? We talk about what that looks like for Tri Tech Automation and how they help customers find those new opportunities. Mentorship is a big theme in this conversation, so we discuss the importance of reaching out to the right people, whether you’re new in your career or want to try something different.

Plus, we look at what we can learn from the Savannah Bananas baseball team (believe it or not, we could learn a thing or two from their customer-first approach).

Cheers to 250 episodes and counting!

In this episode, find out:

• We start with the most important question – what beer did everyone pick?
• Ryan, Adam, and Luke introduce themselves and Tri Tech Automation, and Chris reminisces with his mentors from his Rockwell Automation days
• How Tri Tech Automation focuses on helping customers right-size their tech and find new solutions from their existing resources
• What is a hidden factory and how do you unlock more potential from what you already have?
• The most common issues that manufacturers struggle with
• Real stories about what unlocking a hidden factory really looks like
• How Tri Tech Automation is focused on a three-year plan to unlock its own hidden factories within the workforce, tech, and processes 
• How they’ve unlocked potential across two different locations
• What manufacturers can learn from the Savannah Bananas
• Advice for young people getting into the industry and for those already in manufacturing
• Why mentors are the biggest bonus to your manufacturing career

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Tweetable Quotes:

• "The “hidden factory” represents the untapped potential to do more in their operations with the resources that they have. It represents the invisible inefficiencies and unutilized capacity." - Luke
• "It's business value first and technology second. We have to right-size the technology... but we really need to start with the business outcomes." - Adam
• “Customers know they've got inefficiencies, but they can't quantify it without the data. So it starts with gathering on the front end and then analyzing the low-hanging fruit, where the biggest improvements are.” - Ryan

Links & mentions:

• Tri Tech Automation, a full-service control systems integrator providing R&D, controls design, programming, fabrication, start-up, and commissioning based in St. Louis and Tulsa
• EOS - Entrepreneurial Operating System, a complete set of real-world tools that help entrepreneurs get what they want from their business
• Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, a St. Louis brew pub specializing in German beer and lagers with a variety of beer styles from IPAs to weissbiers

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.