Jay and Andrew talk building for growth, shop layout, removing unnecessary items, morning meetings, and more ..read more

Jay and Andrew talk about the Remarkable tablet and effective idea dumping. Then they both describe their morning meetings and talk about how you inspire people with your company culture ... without reducing it to a bunch of corporate gobbledegook. Books discussed: Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman ..read more

"When I lay in bed at night as a young, hungry, naive entrepreneur, I could barely contain my joy at the thought of filing sales tax forms with a dozen states every month."—Andrew on the joy of state taxes, one of a few subjects he and Jay cover in this week's episode. Mostly, they talk about design. Good, intuitive design that takes into account the way real people think and work. And bad, terrible design that sometimes literally leads to death. Book mentioned: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman ..read more

Andrew and Jay talk about whether they would ever purchase housing for out-of-town workers or clients, why most problems are math problems, how to inculcate company culture in remote workers, why you shouldn't hire too quickly, slips vs mistakes, design that you shouldn't notice, "Swiss cheese problems", and thoughtless outsourcing. In other words, there's plenty to chew on in this episode of Lean Built. Book mentioned: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. Article mentioned:"Boeing and the Dark Age of American Manufacturing" by Jerry Useem ..read more

Andrew and Jay continue to explore the challenges they're facing, including website woes, and brainstorming solutions for keeping customers in the loop about new projects and product releases ..read more

Jay and Andrew talk the eclipse, the joys of 3d printing, and the thought process behind what machines they own ..read more

This episode starts on a somber note as Jay and Andrew both had deaths of people they loved. This leads to a discussion of legacy and what they want to leave behind as shop owners and men. They also discuss Andrew's new idea of dedicated "improvement time", hiring and onboarding remote workers, and Jay's idea for a Gordon Ramsey like show about improving shops (it would be awesome ..read more

From discussing the merits of expanding quickly versus gradually to exploring the pivotal role of the shop floor in fostering career development, Andrew and Jay have a lot to talk about in this episode.  They tackle the idea that anything repetitive should be automatable and ponder what it takes to build a company where employees aspire to retire from. They also examine the importance of assembling a diverse team with varied skills and preferences and the potential of gamification in enhancing productivity. But it's not all about speed. Andrew and Jay emphasize the significance of being c ..read more

In this episode of Lean Built,  Andrew and Jay dive into the world of machining mishaps and shop space dreams. Andrew recounts the story of a wild thing that happened during vacuum workholding, which leads to some tips for safe vacuum hold-down machining—plus a discussion of other downright scary machine malfunctions. Plus Jay and Andrew begin to delve into the topic of planning for future shop expansion ..read more

First up, Jay and Andrew dive into the art  of effectively documenting workflows. How do you avoid the pitfall of keeping everything in your head? Next, they explore the world of AI and how it can be used to address frequently asked customer queries. Then Jay shares a story of transitioning a process from digital to analog, prompting a discussion on the pros and cons of both digital and analog methods. When do you embrace digital tools and when do you stick to the tried-and-true analog methods? All that and more in this episode of Lean Built ..read more