Manufacturing Transformed

I've known the team at Flying S for close to nine years, and their growth story is still hard to wrap my head around. They started in a farm hangar in rural Illinois. Today, they're operating out of roughly 285,000 square feet, with around 170 people, about 50 CNC machines, advanced composites, machining, assembly, and some incredible aerospace work happening under one roof. On this episode of Manufacturing Transformed, I sat down with Cody Yeager to talk through how Flying S scaled without letting the operation turn into chaos. We covered: • Moving from paper travelers and Excel-based scheduling to a connected digital system • Keeping drawings, revisions, and traceability under control • Using ProShop training records to support AS9100 and CMMC readiness • Running lights-out machining while still protecting family time for the team • Building a workforce in a very rural part of the country It's one thing to grow a shop. It's another thing to grow while keeping control of your data, your process, your people, and your culture. This was a fun one. 🎧 Listen: https://lnkd.in/gzWFk_DP 📺 Watch: https://lnkd.in/gyeV_wbN #ManufacturingTransformed #PoweredByProShop #ProShopERP #AerospaceManufacturing #Manufacturing #MachineShop #AS9100 #CMMC #RuralManufacturing #ManufacturingLeadership #ContinuousImprovement

A paper traveler can work. Until it disappears. That was one of the biggest challenges Hunter Russell and the team at Low Country Aerospace faced as they grew. With incoming material paperwork, traceability requirements, outside processing, customer updates, and thousands of work orders, a paper-based system was eventually going to hit a wall. Today, Low Country Aerospace is on track for nearly 12,000 work orders this year — with about 38 people and roughly a dozen machines. They didn't get there by managing paper more carefully. They got there by building a digital system that gives their team live visibility into where every job is, what's next, what material is tied to it, and how to communicate status without walking the floor hunting for a traveler. That visibility has helped them cut the firefighting and spend more time improving the process instead. That's a transformation worth paying attention to. 🎧 Listen: https://lnkd.in/gzWFk_DP 📺 Watch: https://lnkd.in/gyeV_wbN #ManufacturingTransformed #PoweredByProShop #ProShopERP #DigitalManufacturing #PaperlessManufacturing #ManufacturingLeadership #Aerospace #AerospaceManufacturing #MachineShop #Traceability #JobShop #ContinuousImprovement

What happens when a company built for raw horsepower turns its attention to aerospace and defense? That's the story behind this episode of Manufacturing Transformed. I sat down with Brock Graves from Quick Drive Racing — a small, family-run business (him, his brother, and their dad) building high-end drivetrain components designed to handle 3,000+ horsepower for drag racing and motorsports. As the business grew, spreadsheets, CAM notes, and tribal knowledge weren't going to cut it for the next chapter. After bringing on ProShop, they organized their processes, tightened up planning, inventory, and purchasing — then moved aggressively toward AS9100 certification. People in the industry told them it would take years. They got certified in three and a half months. It's one thing to build fast. It's another to build traceable, audit-ready, customer-approved processes at scale. We talk about: • Moving beyond spreadsheets and tribal knowledge • What AS9100 certification actually demands • Why a racing-focused shop decided to chase aerospace work • How ProShop's built-in templates compressed their certification timeline • Staying process-driven without losing the speed that makes a small shop competitive Racing taught them speed. This episode is about what it takes to scale. 🎧 Listen: https://lnkd.in/gzWFk_DP 📺 Watch: https://lnkd.in/gyeV_wbN #ManufacturingTransformed #PoweredByProShop #ProShopERP #AS9100 #Aerospace #DragRacing #Motorsports #QualityManagement #ContinuousImprovement #PrecisionManufacturing

Getting machinists to buy into change is not always easy. Especially when that change means moving away from drawings, paper travelers, and the way things have “always been done.” Todd English of Roush Yates Manufacturing Solutions talks about what it was like implementing ProShop ERP on the shop floor. At first, there were the normal questions: Why are we doing this? How is this going to work? How is this going to impact me? But once the team got through implementation and onboarding, the value became clear. Better visibility. Better access to information. A stronger connection between what is happening on the floor and what the business needs to know. Todd says ProShop has become “the heartbeat” of what they have on the floor. That is the real test of any manufacturing system. Not whether leadership likes the dashboard, but whether the people doing the work can see the benefit. Watch the full episode of Manufacturing Transformed: https://lnkd.in/eg5U95dp #Manufacturing #ERP #ProShopERP #AerospaceManufacturing #DefenseManufacturing #MachineShop #ManufacturingLeadership

Roush Yates is a name most people in motorsports recognize immediately. But what’s happened inside Roush Yates Manufacturing Solutions over the last several years is a much bigger story than race engines. In this episode of Manufacturing Transformed, I sit down with Todd English, CEO of Roush Yates Manufacturing Solutions, to talk about how the company evolved from supporting Ford NASCAR engine programs into a fast-growing contract manufacturer serving aerospace, defense, space, medical, motorsports, and more. We get into: • How RYMS grew from roughly 35 employees to around 115 • Why the company needed better visibility across the shop floor • The move away from paper travelers, spreadsheets, and disconnected systems • How ProShop supports traceability, compliance, audits, quality, and production • Why AS9100, ISO 13485, and CMMC matter in the industries they serve • How their racing DNA still shapes the speed, discipline, and precision of the business today It’s a great look at what happens when a company takes the same attention to detail required on the racetrack and applies it to complex, highly regulated manufacturing. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/efnCseZW 🎥 https://lnkd.in/eg5U95dp #ManufacturingTransformed #Manufacturing #CNC #AerospaceManufacturing #DefenseManufacturing #Motorsports #ProShopERP

I love conversations like this because they remind me what’s still possible in manufacturing when the right people, systems, and mindset come together. A few years ago, Rise Industries was a one-man shop with two machines. Today? ➡️ 11 CNC machines ➡️ 8 employees ➡️ Medical & aerospace customers ➡️ AS9100 and ISO 13485 certified ➡️ On pace for more than $1.5M in revenue But this episode isn’t just about growth numbers. It’s about building a company intentionally. Chris Schutte talks about: 👉 Hiring people he trusted and had worked with before 👉 Moving beyond spreadsheets before growth became chaos 👉 Investing early in systems and certifications 👉 Creating a shop that customers immediately take seriously 👉 Why responsiveness and organization are competitive advantages One of my favorite moments was hearing how a major medical implant project came through immediately after they achieved ISO 13485 certification. That wasn’t accidental. They positioned themselves for it. There’s a blueprint hidden in stories like this for shops that want to level up. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/ej9VnCCX 🎥 https://lnkd.in/eV4gesMC Paul Van Metre ProShop ERP Beth Rose Mike Payne Nick Goellner #Manufacturing #CNC #MedicalManufacturing #Aerospace #ManufacturingLeadership

He cashed out his 401k. He emptied his savings. He bet everything on buying a 10-person job shop. That’s how Andrew Crook got started at Dynamic Fabrication. What struck me most in this conversation wasn’t just the risk. It was what he did next. Instead of trying to run the business the same way… he rebuilt it around process. They: • Culled their customer list • Shifted to aerospace & defense • Standardized equipment • Digitized tools, materials, and routing • Built a full digital backbone for the shop Today the company has: • Tripled staff • Larger facility • Higher-margin aerospace work • Major defense primes as customers And a lot of that growth came from doing the “unsexy” work: tool management, checklists, planning, and documentation. Andrew said something that stuck with me: They decided to become a process-based company and then put in the work to make it real. That’s where transformation actually happens. Not in new machines. Not in new customers. In better systems. New episode of Manufacturing Transformed is live. This one is a great story of risk, discipline, and real operational change. 📽️ https://lnkd.in/eXrbJiqX

New episode of Manufacturing Transformed is live 🎙️ I sat down with Aaron Kennedy from Mahler Machining to talk about what it really looks like to move from guesswork to scalable systems. When they acquired the business, the team was managing hundreds of active jobs using spreadsheets, paper travelers, and a lot of tribal knowledge. It worked, but growth was getting harder. Quoting confidence dropped. Scheduling became conservative. Visibility required walking the floor. They knew something had to change. In this conversation, we dig into how they: • Transitioned ~700 active jobs into a unified system • Replaced tribal knowledge with digital setup and quality plans • Tightened the feedback loop between quoting and actual performance • Improved job visibility across the entire shop • Built a foundation for sustainable growth One of my favorite takeaways: They didn’t choose a system for accounting… they chose one for the machinists. When the people doing the work have better information, everything else improves. ✅ Quoting gets sharper. ✅ Quality gets stronger. ✅ Customers gain confidence. ✅ Growth becomes sustainable. Great conversation and a really thoughtful approach to scaling a modern machine shop. Give it a listen, link in the comments 👇

Most machine shops hear "CMMC" and think cybersecurity. Paul Van Metre reframes it as what it actually is — an operations problem. If you're already running a tight shop, you're closer than you think.

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