This honest, forthright conversation with two amazing manufacturing leaders transforming their operation through intentional restructuring, leading to goal setting, accountability and a leadership team equipped to focus on growth and market opportunity. Jim Steinke and Kadee Miller discuss how Ag Express's wire harnesses can be used in applications in limitless industries and situations. The new focus on the future is allowing Steinke and Miller to add service lines, improve market penetration and engage their employees at all new levels. This episode is a must listen for all manufacturers str ..read more

By all counts, Kreg Tool innovates. Not only in their products and market development, but also in their HR efforts. This episode will lead you through their recent journey from corporate headquarter relocation to post-Covid marketing strategies and current recruitment efforts that have transformed the operation. Karee Vernon, VP of HR has spent a lot of time listening to the employees and developing thoughtful resources to meet the current needs in maintaining an engaged and fully developed workforce. See the full show notes here: https://iowapodcast.com/kreg-tool-karee-vernon ..read more

During their century of protecting inventors’ rights, the attorneys with McKee, Vorhees & Sease attorneys have filed and defended hundreds of patents that have improved lives across the globe. Their service, to innovation, has persisted through World Wars, the Great Depression, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, 9/11 attacks, the pandemic, and 17 presidents. Groundbreaking innovations have been made during their century, such as the invention of television, computers, the internet, electronic circuits, penicillin, vaccines, gene editing, space travel, and so much more.  Join Luke Mo ..read more

In this episode, Kemin production team members Guillermo Garcia and Jeff Grenier talk about Kemin's plans for a $28M expansion at its global headquarters, how they are recruiting globally to meet demands in their Des Moines headquarters and globally to become Kemin's largest pet food manufacturing plant in South America and its acquisition of GLF Ingredienti Alimentari to strengthen its position in the EMEA meat industry. As they open their new manufacturing facility in Verona, Missouri, to produce its Proteus® line of clean-label functional proteins, they become the first facility to do so. J ..read more

Manufacturing is a complex industry with so many moving parts. It can be difficult to create the appropriate margin within the workday to look up and out. The issues are equally complex, touching multiple industries and with diverse needs across different manufacturing sectors, involving everything from “right to work,”  workers' compensation and unemployment compensation laws to R&D tax credits, DNR regulations and the post-Covid supply chain.  Nicole Crain, Executive Vice President with Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI), has been working hard to preserve Iowa's ro ..read more

Having spent summers traveling and fishing with his grandfather, Jason Andringa got to spend quality time learning just what made him tick. Following in the footsteps of Gary Vermeer and Mary Andringa as former leaders of one of the largest manufacturing companies in Iowa isn't easy. Yet Jason, who in 2015 took the reins at Vermeer as President and CEO, is more than up to the task, and his MS in aeronautics from MIT and time spent with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory more than qualifies him for the role.  Jason stopped by The Iowa Manufacturing Podcast studio for an enlightening conver ..read more

Many people look at plastics manufacturing as a complex and difficult industry, which it is, with a lot of moving parts, which it does. So what drew Ryan Gruhn, the owner of Hawkeye Molding in Roland, Iowa, full throttle into the world of their custom molding and injection molding capabilities?  Ryan and Leisa Fox sit down and talk about his journey in manufacturing from lottery ticket displays to cool Disney products, Yeti coolers, popcorn poppers, and burial monuments. Today, the focus for Ryan at Hawkeye Molding is on Iowa-made parts, large and small, the pieces and components integral ..read more

DEI is not dead. But it has become a divisive term. Regardless of its intentions, society has turned it into a way to divide people rather than uniting them. This is leading some to question the movement, with roots that can be traced to the 1960s, the start of workplace diversity training, equal employment laws and affirmative action.  Listen to Sailu Timbo with Creative Planning Business Services as he helps us navigate these turbulent waters. Are DEI initiatives still needed? What do I do with my VP of DEI to make him or her productive in this new landscape? We need to be thoughtful ab ..read more

Since Covid, the amount of double brokering and scamming in the freight industry has reached an all-time high. How do you protect your manufactured products from ill-reputed companies and intermediary brokers? Listen to this podcast as Leisa Fox interviews Craig Feller, with Toggle, about this frightening issue.  Toggle, The Iowa Manufacturing Podcast's first sponsor, can help your organization steer clear of any issues in safely moving your products around the world. The shipper has responsibility here, too. These scammers are looking for loads that are run by companies who don't follow ..read more

Achieving success isn't only about profit margins and market share. It can in many cases be more about creating a coveted work-life balance where owners, employees, and customers are aligned and moving deliberately in the same direction. This goes beyond just finding the right “fit.”  Rob Taylor continues this week with Leisa Fox, hosting the Iowa Manufacturing Podcast and presenting our second installment on EOS implementation, and examining the true sense of ownership that tends to follow alignment having everyone “in the right seat.” At the heart of it all lies ‘nirvana,’ which for bus ..read more