Manufacturing Happy Hour

General-purpose AI can answer almost anything, but that flexibility becomes a liability on the factory floor.
In this bonus episode, Chris sits down with Angelo Stracquatanio, CEO of Apprentice, a purpose-built AI company for manufacturers and the creator of A1: The AI Agent for Manufacturing Teams.
Angelo has spent 12 years building software for the people on the shop floor, starting in the pharma manufacturing suites where a 200-page paper binder sparked the idea for the company.
The conversation covers the origin story of Apprentice, the ‘Predict and Prepare’ framework behind its biggest pivots (including the COVID response that helped produce 300 million vaccine doses), and what it looks like to become AI-native as a business. Angelo also tells the story behind A1, the AI Agent for Manufacturing Teams.
This episode's for any manufacturer trying to separate AI hype from AI that can be trusted in production.
In this episode, find out:
Why Angelo named the company ‘Apprentice’ 12 years ago and why the meaning has only become more relevant in the AI era
How the product evolved from AR headsets and Google Glass into a full ISA 95 manufacturing stack
Why stacking AI inside a single manufacturing system traps it behind four walls, and what a new layer above the stack can do differently
Angelo’s personal path from writing every line of code himself to CEO leading the company through multiple pivots
The ‘Predict and Prepare’ framework behind the team’s COVID response, and how it has guided four or five major business moves
What Angelo has learned over 12 years about building a leadership team around complementary weaknesses
Why a custom-trained model and a constrained workflow engine are what give manufacturing AI the precision and trust it needs for production use

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
“In manufacturing in particular, humans still need to be the driving force. And AI is just a tool to help support them.”
“The hardest thing that I had to learn was not software. It wasn’t even the entrepreneurship or the CEO stuff. It was building trust and credibility with our customers.”
“If we’re gonna use AI in manufacturing, it’s gotta be precise. Otherwise, no one’s gonna trust this thing.”

Links & mentions:
Apprentice, a purpose-built AI company for manufacturers and the creators of A1: The AI Agent for Manufacturing Teams
Laico’s, long-running, brick-lined nook offering an array of Italian cuisine, cocktails, and wine in Jersey City, NJ

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.

For years, reshoring was a fringe idea. Now, it’s one of the most talked-about topics in manufacturing.
Even though the conversation is now in vogue, there’s still a challenge. Many companies are still making the same mistake when deciding where to manufacture. They’re looking at price, not total cost of ownership (TCO).
In this episode, Chris sits down with Harry Moser – Founder of the Reshoring Initiative – to break down the real math behind reshoring…and why getting that math right could unlock millions of jobs and fundamentally reshape U.S. manufacturing.
Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mfg Happy Hour's GOLDEN STATE TAKEOVER Tour
Don't miss Manufacturing Happy Hour on tour this May 2026 as we head across the state of California. We'll be hitting the Bay Area on 5/19, Modesto on 5/20, and Los Angeles on 5/21. Live podcasts and parties in every city. Get your tickets today.
Manufacturing Happy Hour on Tour

How do you know when your current setup has stopped working, and what to do with it when it does?
In this bonus episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour, Chris sits down with Shane Dubbelman, Head of Partnerships at MRPeasy, and Sara Duff, Managing Director at Smart Manufacture, to talk about what happens at that point, when the lack of visibility into inventory, costs, and operations starts to hold a business back.
They get into where spreadsheets begin to slack, how to think about MRP vs ERP at that stage of growth, and why a lot of companies looking at ERP are probably aiming too far ahead of what they need.
Sara shares a couple of examples from her work with manufacturers, including how one CNC machining business ended up stretched across a mix of disconnected tools. And Shane walks through how MRPeasy approaches the tricky task of implementation.
In this episode, find out:
The point where spreadsheets start to break down, and the impact that has on costs and planning
Why most companies aiming for ERP would be better starting with MRP
How one CNC machining business ended up stretched across disconnected tools
What changed for a manufacturer that moved off Excel and saw 25% growth in a year
The common traits Sara sees in manufacturers that scale successfully
How MRPeasy approaches implementation, from self-serve to hands-on support

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
“A lot of small manufacturers that are looking for ERP software probably actually need MRP software - because they're looking to manage their manufacturing.” - Shane Dubbelman
“A year after MRPeasy went live, they grew their business by just over 25% - without significantly increasing their headcount. The system made that possible.” - Sara Duff
“It’s those that are open to looking at there being a different way of doing things. I may not know exactly how to do that, but if I bring in the right people and the right technology, I can achieve it.” - Sara Duff

Links & mentions:
MRPeasy User Manual, installing MRPeasy does not have to be hard or expensive; you can even do it yourself
Smart Manufacture, UK-based Smart Manufacture works with companies from SMEs to Mid-Market across multiple verticals, including engineering to order, discrete manufacturing, batch manufacturing and process manufacturing; Smart Manufacture help these companies to specify, select and implement proven best of breed software which can deliver tangible business outcomes – reduced costs, improved operational efficiencies, increased revenues and improved productivity

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.

Kwadwo Som-Pimpong started making furniture in 2015 because he bought a house with no furniture and decided to build his own.
A decade later, he runs Crafted Glory, a small-batch luxury furniture brand blending West African artistry with Scandinavian design, while working 10-hour shifts at Eaton as a fabrication supervisor.
In this episode, Chris sits down with Kwadwo to trace the journey from those first end tables built in a garage to a full-scale business.
The conversation covers how Kwadwo manages the constraints of four to five hours in the shop each day, including three strategies he has put in place, a clipboard for tracking time and tasks, using Claude to reflect and connect the dots on the 40-minute drive home, and a networking story from New York that turned one photo on Instagram into a series of interior design projects.
He also walks through the Echoes of the Forest project, two pieces made from trees uprooted by Hurricane Helene, one already installed in Biltmore Forest Town Hall and one headed for Asheville’s historic YMI Cultural Center.
In this episode, find out:
How Kwadwo got into furniture making in 2015 out of necessity, moving into a house with no furniture and discovering he’d rather build his own, and how that organic beginning grew into Crafted Glory
How his dual engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon gives him the mindset and the resilience to keep working through problems that feel unsolvable
What he observed visiting Hellman Chang’s manufacturing plant in Georgia, component part numbers, scan systems, work cells, and 5S, and how it changed what scaling from craft to production can look like while keeping the handmade element intact
How 12 years as a fabrication supervisor at Eaton translated directly into running his own team, applying method sheets and time studies, and building standard operations that let someone else step in and do what he does
The three strategies he uses to manage four to five hours of shop time per day alongside a 10-hour shift: a clipboard for time tracking, Claude for end-of-day reflection, and deliberate networking that turned one New York visit into a pipeline of interior design projects
The Echoes of the Forest project, how Hurricane Helene uprooted thousands of trees across Asheville and led to two commissions: a mantle from a fallen walnut tree installed in Biltmore Forest Town Hall, and an outdoor bench headed for the historic YMI Cultural Center

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
“Now I see where I’m spending my time, I see how long each piece takes me. If I know the time, that translates into my pricing. If I get my pricing right, that moves me closer to being free from working another job.”
“I use AI a lot in helping with organization — Claude specifically. At the end of the day, on my 40-minute drive home, I dictate what happened in the studio, my reflections, the challenges I faced. I love how Claude draws connections and builds on your whole story, your whole journey.”
“I aspire to have an operation where I still maintain the craft element of what I’m doing, but it is systematized such that I can step away, bring someone in, train them to the documentation, and they can come in and do the same thing that I do.”

Links & mentions:
Crafted Glory, small batch luxury handmade furniture brand that crafts sustainable hardwood artistic furniture inspired by West African artistry and Scandanavian design
Biscuit Head, an incredible biscuit-centric breakfast joint with roots in Asheville, NC

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.
Mentioned in this episode:
Mfg Happy Hour's GOLDEN STATE TAKEOVER Tour
Don't miss Manufacturing Happy Hour on tour this May 2026 as we head across the state of California. We'll be hitting the Bay Area on 5/19, Modesto on 5/20, and Los Angeles on 5/21. Live podcasts and parties in every city. Get your tickets today.
Manufacturing Happy Hour on Tour

Running out of warehouse space doesn’t always mean you need more of it. For Sumitomo Drive Technologies, it meant rethinking the whole operation from the ground up.
In this episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour, Chris sits down remotely with Tony Barlett and Shawn Lambert from Sumitomo Drive Technologies for an inside look at a live warehouse automation project underway at their Chesapeake, Virginia headquarters.
The project combines AutoStore, an automated storage and retrieval system, with automated guided vehicles to compress 30,000 square feet of high-bay racking into a 7,500 square foot footprint, with robots handling the picking and every transaction flowing through a single digital interface.
The conversation runs from the 2021 decision all the way through to where the project stands today. The business case, the technology choices, and what it takes to bring automation into a facility that has run on pen and paper for years.
They get into the workforce question too. What this means for the people on the floor, how Sumitomo plans to grow 50 percent over the next five years without scaling headcount at the same rate, and why the digital foundation they're building now is what makes AI integration possible later.
In this episode, find out:
How a customer demo in 2021 sparked the decision to stop expanding Sumitomo Drive Technologies' warehouse footprint and automate instead, and what it took to get from that first look to a live project
What the AutoStore system does at a practical level, and how a simple analogy made the technology immediately understandable for anyone who hasn’t seen it
How condensing 30,000 square feet of high-bay racking into a 7,500 square foot cube changes what growth looks like for the business
How moving from pen-and-paper operations to a single digital interface changes day-to-day work for every person on the warehouse floor
The company’s plan for its existing workforce, and how it expects to grow 50 percent over the next five years with roughly the same headcount it has today
Why the AI boom has not changed the scope of this project, and why building connected digital infrastructure now is the precondition for AI integration down the road
The three pieces of advice Tony and Shawn would pass on to any manufacturer considering an automation project of this scale

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
"If you're not doing this from an automation standpoint, you're missing the boat. It is the wave of the future, the labor force shortages are not going away, and they're only going to get more difficult." - Tony Barlett
"You can't start looking into this soon enough. The more prepared you are for a project of this scale, the better off you're going to be, not just plugging in the automation, but how it connects to your ERP, your processes, your AGVs." - Shawn Lambert
"AI doesn't do anything for you when you're dealing with pen and paper. Get into a more technological age first, get your software systems in place, and then you can integrate AI to turn static decisions into dynamic ones." - Shawn Lambert

Links & mentions:
Sumitomo Drive Technologies, dedicated to providing the highest quality power transmission products, gearboxes, gearmotors, and services to industrial companies
AutoStore, automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) that uses the power of warehouse robots for 24/7 order fulfillment within a cubic layout
Swisslog, logistics automation; they design, manufacture, and optimize automated logistics solutions across the supply chain
Nansemond Brewing, craft brewery in downtown Suffolk, VA
Allgood Lounge, premiere bar and party spot in Athens, GA

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.
Mentioned in this episode:
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