This week, Jay and Andrew treating vendors like partners, and why that pays off. They also dive into the evolution of their daily morning meetings, sharing how they’re constantly tweaking the format to make those few minutes more meaningful for their teams.

Finally, they tackle AI in manufacturing. Where does it actually save time? Where does it make people worse at thinking? And how do you use it as a tool without letting it become a crutch?

What if one of the fastest ways to improve your machine shop is walking through someone else’s?

In this solo episode, Andrew shares lessons from recent shop tours, including visits to manufacturers in Japan and Toyota Material Handling in Columbus, Indiana. He explains why every shop owner and manufacturing leader should regularly visit other facilities, shamelessly borrow great ideas, and expose their teams to new ways of thinking.

Andrew explores how shop tours create better benchmarks, reveal simple solutions to stubborn problems, strengthen industry relationships, and help leaders see both their company’s strengths and blind spots. He also reflects on why taking your team along is often even more valuable than going alone, and why the best leaders spend more time listening than talking.

Andrew shares how a simple magnetic tag meant to prevent a security mistake failed, not because the idea was bad, but because the process wasn’t complete. From there, Andrew and Jay explore Kanban systems, physical signals, mistake-proofing, and why the best systems don’t rely on memory.

Along the way, Andrew and Jay trade stories about forgotten garage doors, rusting cast iron, Toyota-inspired fixtures, tool wear, AI, and the difference between hard work and the right work. They reflect on the value of training shoulder-to-shoulder with employees, and why the most effective improvements are often the simplest ones: a tag on a keyring, a fixture that prevents mistakes, or a process that makes the wrong action impossible.

Here is the BMW video Jay referenced.

And here's the podcast Andrew referenced, Stories are Soul Food.