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The Allied Advisors Podcast

The Allied Advisors Podcast

By: Justin Goethe
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The Allied Advisors Podcast is designed for mid-market manufacturers looking to scale and sharpen their competitive edge. Each episode features in-depth conversations with lean manufacturing experts and top-performing manufacturing executives who share proven strategies, hard-earned lessons, and real-world success stories. Our goal is simple: every listener walks away with practical insights they can apply immediately to drive growth, improve efficiency, and lead their teams more effectively.

© 2026 The Allied Advisors Podcast Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Resistance Is Just Fear in Disguise — Kathy Miller on Lean, Culture & People

    Resistance Is Just Fear in Disguise — Kathy Miller on Lean, Culture & People
    Jul 8 2026

    From the shop floor to the boardroom — Kathy Miller has spent 30+ years leading operations at Rolls-Royce, GM, Delphi Delco, and Parker Hannifin, where she ran a $3B+ business with full P&L responsibility and toured 200+ plants across 24 countries. A 2021 Women in Manufacturing Hall of Fame inductee and co-author of Steel Toes and Stilettos, she went back to school at Penn for a master's in Applied Positive Psychology to put language and science behind what she'd witnessed on the plant floor.

    In this episode, Kathy unpacks her MORE framework — Meaning, Optimism, Relationships, and Excellence — and makes the case that so-called "soft skills" are actually hard-metric performance enhancers. We talk about why frontline supervisors get "thrown to the wolves," how to connect repetitive work to real purpose, and why investing in people is the single biggest opportunity for mid-market manufacturers.

    What We Cover

    • The note from "Jimmy" that changed how Kathy leads: "Before you came, the little people would have remained the little people."
    • Why resistance to lean and continuous improvement is really fear in disguise — and how psychological safety unlocks it
    • Meaning as the starting point: connecting airbag electronics, rubber parts, and hydration packs to the lives they touch
    • The colleague-to-boss transition no one trains for — and how to bridge it
    • Leading "on concrete, not carpet," and treating workforce development as an investment, not a cost
    • MORE Mentor: a "Coach Kathy in your pocket" AI tool grounded in her research

    Memorable Quotes
    "Those things people call soft skills are really not soft at all — they're performance enhancers to get hard metrics."
    "I'm writing books for people who lead on concrete, not just carpet."
    "Resistance is just really fear in disguise."
    "There's literally a place for everybody in operations — from a high school diploma to a PhD."

    Timestamps
    00:00 — Intro & Kathy's background
    01:30 — The plant-floor moment behind the MORE model
    04:30 — Why "soft skills" drive hard metrics
    07:30 — Having a shared language for leadership
    10:30 — The MORE framework explained
    10:45 — Supervisors thrown to the wolves: the colleague-to-boss gap
    13:00 — Starting with Meaning: connecting work to purpose
    17:00 — Lean transformation, BHAGs & overcoming resistance
    21:30 — More Is Better: an overview of the new book
    23:30 — Under-investing in frontline leaders
    24:15 — MORE Mentor: Coach Kathy in your pocket
    27:30 — The biggest people opportunity for mid-market manufacturers
    31:00 — Respect for people & securing the future

    About the Guest
    Kathy Miller is President and Founder of MORE for Leaders, a keynote speaker, certified leadership coach, and business transformation advisor. Former VP of Lean Enterprise and Quality at Parker Hannifin. Author of More Is Better and co-author of Steel Toes and Stilettos.

    Links

    • MORE for Leaders & the MORE Mentor tool: more4leaders.com
    • Book: More Is Better — Leading Operations with Meaning, Optimism, and Relationships for Excellence
    • Book: Steel Toes and Stilettos
    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-miller-mapp-mba-acc/

    The Allied Advisors Podcast — for mid-market manufacturers looking to scale operations and improve the bottom line.
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    33 mins
  • Manufacturing's Best-Kept Secret: How the MEP Network Helps Mid-Market Manufacturers Scale with Keith Gammill

    Manufacturing's Best-Kept Secret: How the MEP Network Helps Mid-Market Manufacturers Scale with Keith Gammill
    Jun 24 2026
    In this episode, host Justin sits down with Keith Gammill, Director of Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions (AMS), the state's affiliate of the National MEP Network. Drawing on nearly 30 years in operations, quality, HR, and continuous improvement, Keith makes the case that the MEP is one of the rare government programs that "got it right" — and walks through how mid-market manufacturers can actually put it to work. The conversation ranges from the origins of lean and where it still gets misapplied, to the central role of vision in leadership, the real impact of AI on the office (not just the shop floor), and what a first engagement with your state's MEP center looks like.About the guestKeith Gammill leads transformational support for manufacturers across Arkansas as Director of AMS, part of Arkansas Workforce Connections and the National MEP Network. Before joining AMS in 2014, he spent over a decade at Anchor Packaging — most recently as Director of Quality and Product Safety, leading 20 quality professionals across nine manufacturing units, and earlier driving an AutoPack division turnaround from last to first place in the company. A Gestalt Professional Certified Coach and DDI Certified Facilitator, Keith holds dual BS degrees from Arkansas State University in Industrial Technology and Leadership Management. By his own description: "an old manufacturing puke."What you'll learn (with timestamps)[00:03:00] — What the MEP Network is: a public-private partnership funded continuously since 1988, modeled on the Cooperative Extension Service — "the county agents for manufacturing," with a center in every state plus Puerto Rico.[00:06:00] — The bread and butter: traditional lean services, including the Lean 101 workshop (Principles of Lean Manufacturing), run thousands of times in Arkansas.[00:08:00] — How the network shares best practices through regional nodes and national gatherings — giving any center access to ~1,250 professionals system-wide.[00:10:00] — How MEP services have evolved: reshoring/nearshoring post-COVID, plus technology transfer, automation, and AI.[00:11:00] — Why AI's biggest manufacturing impact will be in the office, not the shop floor — sitting on top of disparate systems to flag issues and distill the critical few priorities.[00:13:00] — South Carolina's OPEX (Operational Exchange) program, benchmarking trips, and why "all we know is what we know."[00:15:00] — The Arkansas Manufacturing Showcase: an event "by manufacturers, for manufacturers" creating matchmaking and serendipitous connections across the state's ecosystem.[00:16:00] — Good vs. great management: great managers have "seen great" — and why mistaking lean's tools for its goals leads people to throw the whole thing out.[00:18:00] — Vision as the "beyond-the-horizon compass heading," and why involving stakeholders down to the shop floor is where commitment lives.[00:22:00] — Keith's accessible take on vision: "If you've ever been on vacation, you've got vision."[00:23:00] — What a real MEP engagement looks like: it starts with a listening session — pull, not push — tailored to industry, size, culture, and maturity.[00:27:00] — Developing frontline leaders: AMS's Transformational Leadership Improvement suite, built for the operators promoted into leadership without ever being taught how to lead.[00:29:00] — AI and legacy equipment: a phased approach starting with sensors and data, always within a bigger vision via value stream mapping.[00:33:00] — Why planning's real value is the experiential journey the team takes together — and how that drives accountability without having to enforce it.[00:35:00] — A friendly point of "violent agreement": why change efforts need a dedicated resource, not a shop-floor supervisor getting called 50 times a day.[00:37:00] — How to get connected and what to expect from a first plant visit.Quotable moments"You either mine it, make it, or grow it.""All we know is what we know.""The difference in good management and great management is great management has seen great at some point in their career.""Vision is the beyond-the-horizon compass heading that draws us forward.""If you've ever been on vacation, you've got vision.""The game is won and lost in the corner office, not on the shop floor.""You don't really need to enforce accountability when people have been a part of the journey.""The expert is anybody more than 50 miles from the plant.""If you're not engaged with them, you're foolish not to take advantage of it."Key takeaways for mid-market manufacturersThere's an MEP center in every state offering deeply discounted, locally delivered support — most manufacturers just don't know it exists. Lean is as relevant as ever, but it spans the whole business; most waste hides in administrative functions, not on the floor. AI's near-term payoff is largely in the office, connecting siloed systems and surfacing the critical few priorities. Any technology...
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    42 mins
  • Run Your Pipeline Like a Shop Floor: Stage Gates for Mid-Market Sales with Bill Bell

    Run Your Pipeline Like a Shop Floor: Stage Gates for Mid-Market Sales with Bill Bell
    Jun 10 2026
    Episode SummaryMost operators run the shop floor as a disciplined, measurable system and treat the sales pipeline as a black box. Bill Bell spent his career proving they are the same thing. A million dollar deal dies at month nine and the only explanation anyone offers is "the customer went a different direction." That answer is not a diagnosis. It is nothing.In this episode, Bill walks through how he took stage-gate thinking off the production line and applied it to complex industrial sales, why a stalled deal is a diagnosis rather than a dead end, and how mid-market manufacturers can stop pouring engineering capacity into custom orders that quietly lose money. If you came up through operations and the commercial side feels like guesswork, this one is for you.About the GuestBill Bell is a partner and fractional Chief Revenue Officer at Chief Outsiders, with more than 20 years of CEO and senior executive experience across the automotive, industrial engineering, and technology sectors. His career includes leadership roles at Durr Group, Leadec Corporation, and Dunes Point Capital, plus executive education at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. As president and CEO of Leadec, he grew the top line by more than 80% in 24 months while substantially improving the bottom line. Today he partners with mid-market manufacturers and industrial companies to build the commercial infrastructure they need to drive consistent double-digit growth.What We Cover(02:00) The origin story: how watching a welding station failure on the shop floor reframed a lost million dollar deal(05:00) Why the right question is not "what's wrong with the deal" but "where in our process did the deal get stuck"(07:00) Start on a whiteboard, not in a CRM. Run a 90 day Monday morning review before you automate anything(09:00) Sales as a manufacturing process: you do not get a perfect widget on the first run(10:00) Going to the gemba in sales means windshield time with your reps, not solving it from the conference room(12:30) The qualification problem, and the 80% top-line growth that came mostly from tightening the front end(14:00) The four criteria that separate a real project from sales scrap(19:00) The CEO learning curve: getting your ego out of the room when you are not the smartest person in it(22:00) Why accountability for execution is what separates great CEOs from the rest(23:00) Customization as an absence of commercial discipline, and the three questions that fix itKey TakeawaysA stalled deal is diagnostic. One stuck deal is noise. A hundred deals stuck in the same stage is a pattern. Consistent deaths at the budgetary quote point to an estimating problem. Deaths at technical validation point to a sales enablement gap.Understand the process before you buy software. Build the stage gates by hand, review every deal for 90 days, and find the patterns first. Then buy a CRM to automate a process you actually understand.Sales time is money, and unqualified deals are scrap. Selling without generating volume is the commercial equivalent of producing scrap on the line.Qualify against four criteria. A real project needs all four:A compelling event forcing a decision (capacity constraint, regulatory deadline, platform launch)Access to the economic buyer who owns the problem, not just a technical evaluatorA solution that genuinely solves the problem (if you cannot, say so and refer them, building credibility for next time)A champion with a personal reason to want the winThe CEO's job is to build more leaders. Stop trying to be the smartest person in every room. Ask better questions, demand clarity, let your functional experts own the decisions, then hold them accountable for executing what was agreed.Customization is not a value prop, it is often missing discipline. Push every custom request through a technical qualification gate with three questions:Can this be built from our standard platform, or does it require genuine custom engineering?If custom, what is the realistic hour and lead time impact, and is the customer being told that truthfully upfront?Is the margin acceptable once real engineering hours land, or are we about to take an order that loses money?"Leaving revenue on the table" is a myth when you say no. Every custom order that eats disproportionate engineering capacity is an order you cannot take from a better-fit customer. You are already leaving revenue on the table. You just cannot see it.Quotable Moments"When you think about sales, it's nothing more than a manufacturing process. Instead of manufacturing a widget, you're manufacturing a sale.""The right question is, where in our process did the deal get stuck, and try and figure out what the pattern is.""If you're selling but you're not generating volume, you're creating scrap.""The hardest discipline is really just to take your ego and put it in a drawer.""My job as a leader is to build more leaders. If I get hit by a car, I wanna have seven other people in ...
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    30 mins
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