Manufacturing Mavericks

Manufacturing Manager, Daniel Anglemyer, didn’t take the traditional path into manufacturing, and that’s exactly why you’ll want to hear his story.

From hog barns and cage fights to union shops and now leadership at Hibshman, Daniel brings grit, humility, and a clear-eyed approach to modern manufacturing! In this episode, he opens up about how culture, not just equipment, drives real change on the shop floor.

You’ll hear how personal setbacks have transformed into leadership lessons, and why identifying and empowering emerging leaders in the industry is important. Additionally, he shares how technology is supporting the creation of a team-first, process-driven operation at Hibshman, where people show up, speak up, and take ownership.

If you care about building strong teams, growing future leaders, and creating a shop culture that works, this episode is for you.

Show Notes
01:54 — From Farming Roots to a Fourth-Generation Machinist
06:17 — Losing a Job But Finding a Path
10:51 — What MMA Taught Daniel About Leadership
13:42 — NTMA's Emerging Leaders program 
22:21 — Turning Core Values into Action
26:51 — The Tools Behind Hipschman’s Smart Shop Transformation

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Learn more at www.datanomix.io

Creators and Guests

Host
Greg McHale
Greg founded Datanomix, a company delivering game-changing production insights and intelligence to manufacturers of discrete components. Datanomix was founded on the premise that the 4th industrial revolution would require turnkey products that integrate seamlessly with how manufacturers work today—not clunky workflows that depend on human input or complex data extraction. He brings enterprise data skills to a market ripe for innovation. Greg has held engineering leadership positions at several venture-backed companies and is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Guest
Daniel Anglemyer
Manufacturing Manager at Hibshman

What is Manufacturing Mavericks?

Manufacturing Mavericks aren’t afraid to shake things up and stand out from the crowd. They are embracing the best tools and technology to showcase world-class American manufacturing and grow their business.

Join Greg McHale, founder of Datanomix, as he sits down with these exceptional people to hear their stories and explore the important lessons they learned along the way. Listeners can gain valuable insights they can use in their own facilities to improve their bottom line.

Greg: Welcome to Manufacturing Mavericks, a podcast where we showcase and celebrate exceptional people from across precision manufacturing who are boldly embracing new ways to improve their processes, grow their bottom lines, and ensure American manufacturing will thrive for generations to come.

Welcome to this episode of Manufacturing Mavericks. I'm your host, Greg McHale, and I am joined today by a very special guest, someone who I have bumped into in the past at various NTMA events, and someone that I know is very focused on modernization investments in culture and investments in technology.

And that is Daniel Engel Meyer from Hipschman Screw Machine Products. How you doing today, Daniel? I'm doing pretty good. Nice day out. That's good. That's great to hear. We're overdue for nice days this time of year. Yes. So we'll, we'll take 'em when we can get 'em, that's for sure. So, Daniel, I, I know that you've been very involved in various events with the NTMA.

I think we've bumped into each other at emerging Leaders Engage some of the other field events. I know Hipschman always has. A very strong presence at the NTMA, so definitely love to see that. I think NTMA is a fantastic organization that does very well by its members and for its members and and for manufacturers overall.

So, you know, Daniel would love to hear the origin story for you. How'd you get into manufacturing in the first place and then. We can weave that journey up to how things are going currently at Hipschman.

Daniel: All right. Yeah, that sounds good to me.

Greg: Let's go with, with what was it that caused you to first want to get into manufacturing?

How did the, how did the Spark fire for you? I.

Daniel: I was working at a farm. I've done that all my life. And my dad was a farmer, but my grandfather was a, a manufacturer. He, uh, worked with, uh, Acme Gridley since 62. His father-in-law got him into manufacturing and machining, and then my uncle's in there too. So I'm pretty sure I'm a fourth generation machinist.

For, uh, Acme Gridley, you know, that's my bread and butter. I can tear 'em down, put 'em back together, you know, but I, it all comes from farming. You gotta be able to fix your tractors and stuff like that. So having that aptitude to fix things is real important. I got in school, I did a little bit of high school, I did a little manufacturing and stuff.

Did a little college credits and stuff here and there for it. Had a real knack for math and reading. Uh. You know, my kilometers and calipers and stuff, all my buddies would copy off my work. So I'm happy I got them through.

Greg: Hopefully you got rewarded for that. Somehow.

Daniel: I got a buddy that fixes boats and stuff.

He sucked at math, but man, he can fix anything. So like when my boat breaks down, he's there for me. So I get friendships, everything. So.

Greg: Do you help 'em do the math on the, on the bill? Does it, do you get to turn the numbers down or what

Daniel: I, if I have to, I will. It's just funny how some people, you know, they just can't, you know, they can't put the decimal on the right side.

It is always fun, but after high school, I went back to farming and I was preparing to go to the Marines. That's what I wanted to do. I, I wanted to go in the military. I was big into MMA cage fighting and stuff like that, and I thought, you know, the Marines is where I could pursue that a little bit more so I can get into, um, cage fighting a little bit more.

'cause before I was an amateur and then I was doing my testing and stuff, and my grandpa. He was working down at Justin Manufacturing in Elkhart, Indiana at the time, and he was like, Hey, come down here and, uh, fill out an application. We'll see if you like it. At that time, I was like, well, okay, you know, and he is like, well, you're gonna get paid 10 bucks an hour, but that's for the first 60 days and your, your pay will go up.

It was a union shop, but he is like, it's only a part-time gig for an hour on second shift. So I was like, okay. So I was farming and. Working at this machine shop. So I was working, I'd go in the farming at seven in the morning. I, you know, I was in a, um, pig barn, so I was helping give birth to baby pigs. So I like to think I saved lives or bacon either way.

Um, bacon's good and Bacon's always good, but I started, you know, and started working both jobs and then they said, here's a full-time gig. So I got out of the farming and went straight into manufacturing and I started. I started as a chip spinner. You know, I'd go in there and spin chips all day. That was my job in Tumble Park.

And then I worked in the seal room for a little while, um, putting away stock and just making sure everything's flowing really good down there. At Justin's, they had a real good process about how they did things. Real good, uh, teaching skills and classes and stuff you had of all these old guys that, you know, are far retired now.

But it was fun learning from 'em all. And then, uh, went union shop, they put up a bid for Acme Gridley, and that's where, oh, I signed the piece of paper. And they're like, here you go. You're getting stuck with your grandpa. So I got to work with him for. About a year learning how to operate and run an Acme gridley.

And then they, I did that for a year. You know, he's the hardest critic that I'll ever know. Working with him and my uncle, I've, I've gotten so much from him. I learned so much. My grandpa's, he's one of the old timers that's, he's hard, he's not like new technology, does not like new technology, don't like computers.

He just retired. He is retired five times now, but he came and worked with me last summer. For, and he was 81 years old. He is the youngest, 81-year-old you'll ever see in your life. Guarantee it. So I'm like, thank God for those genes, because I'm a pretty healthy 36-year-old. So I like to think I got that from him.

But I worked there for four and a half years and it, it was great. Get involved with the wrong girl and then, you know that, that started, went south a little bit with the whole job thing. You know, young and dumb, early twenties. And I ended up losing that job because, you know, I just couldn't show up to work.

But I was, I'm one of those people that, you know, I show up, I'm gonna do my 10 hours of work in five hours, I'm there to get the job done. But in a union, you, you point out and you know, you doing dumb things. So ended up losing that job. And it was, it was funny because like I went right back to farming. I did that for another two years and then I met, I met my wife within those two years and.

She has been the driving point for me for continuous improvement, CI management. My whole shop is probably built around around my wife, I would say, because all of her ideas have drove me to the point where I'm at now. I. With my success and what's bigger and better out there, and what technologies can help my operators.

You know, it's all about the people you work with and your teamwork. So that's what I'm trying to improve every day is just the teamwork. I, it ain't even about improving the machines or anything. It's about improving my culture. I want people to go out and say. I love my job. I love going to work every day.

I, you should try to get work here is what I want to hear. When I got into Hitchman's, it was the plant management wasn't the greatest. My wife drove me into filling out that application because we didn't make any money. No money. Like she ended up going to working with my mom in assembly work, and. We're driving one vehicle.

So a lot of times I'd ride my bike to the farm when I worked there, but when I got in the hitchman's, my whole life changed. I was a supervisor in a year. I. Because when I got in there, it was just like, it was ran like it was in the eighties where people would just run parts. They wouldn't, quality wasn't on the mind, it was just run parts.

We need as many parts out as we can. Chad is a him taking over about that time, about the time I started, it was a complete shift when I started. So we've seen a lot of change in a short amount of time. In about 2016, Chad took over, I think in 2014, got a new sales guy in 2015, and then I got hired and I took over the maintenance of the Acme grid leases and everything and helped over in the Brown and Sharps where I could and stuff.

I have a reeled knack for tearing stuff apart and putting it back together. Right. I guess I'm lucky, I guess. I'm not a programmer. I'm, I'm learning, you know, I go in, I, I understand Swiss machines. Well, at least I understand how they work. I can go in and be like, okay, this, it's doing this. I, we should be able to do this.

So Matt, there, he, we've gotten a lot closer now than when we, we first started. 'cause he started in 2022, I want to say. So. Well at first, you know, we butted heads a little bit, but he's a programmer. You know, he is a CNC guy. He ain't an old school working on these machines like I was brought up. So it's a different shift in that.

But Chad's really been, it's been me and Chad. It was me and Chad for a long time, and the sales guy, I guess you could say he was involved. He, he ain't there no more. So things have changed. But in 2019, I went back to Jess's for like three months. I, I call it my vacation time, my learning time. But, you know, just working with Chad is a, you know, I'm, I'm grateful for him.

I'm blessed. I grew up in a poor family. My dad was in and outta jail for, you know, drugs and stuff like that. So like I had to. I grew up around a lot of that stuff that drove me to not want to be like that. 'cause I see a lot of it, you know, I understand a lot of street things that go on around drugs and stuff.

But I'm a hillbilly. I'm a hillbilly. So like I'm in the co, I'm in the country, you know, like I am a, I am the biggest redneck. I hunt, I fish. That's what I live for. And if my job provides me the chance to be able to do that, that's what I want to do. And being with Chad, he really. Lets me do my thing and he doesn't, he'll question it, but it's always good questions.

It's the way a company should be ran, you know, like we, we should be about the people that work there or not. Not so much the parts that are ran there. If you have good people, you get good parts, you get good results.

Greg: So much to unpack so far. I mean, I don't know if I start at hog farming cage fighting grandpa or your wife and the impact there, I think I'm, I'm gonna jump in all of it.

The most curious point first. Talk to me about the cage fighting. How did you get into cage fighting?

Daniel: Well, I was always into it since I was about 14, so I always did some backyard brawling. I never did wrestling, but I should have. I was good at jujitsu, so choking somebody, putting somebody in an arm bar.

My uh, my fight name was Daniel Eng Bar Meyer. Any angle I was in, I was getting you in an arm bar and you know, yeah, you watch some of my fights on YouTubes and stuff. You see 'em all. And I'm always. Tapping somebody out.

Greg: I gotta make sure I'm really on your good side.

Daniel: Wow. I am not a aggressive person at all.

I'm the most chill, fun, I love life. You know? I just want to laugh and have a good time. I'm just there to live it. 'cause you only live once. Well, you live every day, but I guess you only die once.

Greg: It's true. Especially, especially if you're on the other side of a choke hold for too long. But,

Daniel: but that's where like when I got hired in where my grandpa worked, I had to train the next chip spinner guy.

The next chip spinner guy was somebody that did a little MMA little cage fighting. I was about 23 when I took my first fight. Uh, it was right after my son was born. I got a 12-year-old son. He is about 13. The kid's almost taller than me. I can't believe it. I was like half his size at his age, but he was born and my buddy was like, Hey, these cage fights are down here in this hotel.

You want to come and do it? And I was like. Yeah, why wouldn't I want to do it? My, my brother's gonna do it too. 'cause my twin brother, you know, we just beat the hell out of each other every day because that's what we do. What's my best block? My face. But he was like, come in and try these cage fights. And, you know, ever since then it, it was a little tiny cage and this little conference room, you reach up and touch the ceiling.

So, because it was off the floor a little bit. Yeah. And went in there and I grappled with a guy for three rounds. I ended up losing, but I stuck with it. I ended up becoming, uh, 12 and six as an amateur, and then I went pro. I should have trained harder. I should have trained more. I had some good connections.

Probably could have been in the UFC at one point. I wasn't fighting enough. I would take a fight like once a year. So when I went pro, it was like once a year I'd take a fight. So I ended up taking three fights, went two in one as a pro. I'd say my last fight was a controversy 'cause I, I busted that dude up.

So good. It was a great time. Uh, it was awesome. But that, you know, that was my fighting career. You know, I met a lot of great people in that. What's big with me is coaching. I coach boxing. I coach, coach MMA. I've coached Jiujitsu, now I'm coaching manufacturers and culture. For people, you know, trying to build on that more because from the NTMA, coach m Emma Doyle, she is awesome, phenomenal.

She was a tennis coach in Australia and she's just, she's an awesome person to learn from. She brings excitement to manufacturing and to teaching people that is phenomenal. If you are, if you ain't taking emerging leaders with her. You probably should have been or should be. I've, I've done emerging leaders one and emerging leaders two.

Emma Doyle is where it's at. She interacts with people. She makes you interact with people. It ain't, it isn't a, they're teaching you, talking to you, explaining things to you all the time. It's, she's making you do it. You know, like, here, we're gonna break you out in these rooms and stuff, talk to each other and stuff.

Learn from each other, and it really brings excitement. To the game of manufacturing. It's turned my life around, well, not around, but I did a 1, 180 or something like that, and I was like, okay, I want to coach people. You know? I want to be here to support people and help people through anything. I've, I've lived a lot.

I've, I've learned a lot. I've done a lot of dumb things. I'm not the smartest person in the book, but I love life and I, I think everybody should love their life. It's your choice to love it. So nobody else has that choice. Nobody's making you do anything. It's always your choice. My wife, she coaches me through every day, so that's what she's there for.

Daniel,

Greg: I, I gotta tell you, I mean your, your candor, your honesty, your transparency is amazing. I mean, I can tell there is a lot of wisdom and experience and reflection. In the different pieces of the story here as they're coming together. And the one that I, the one that I really wanna dig into, I mean, first of all, I don't know how many people come on the show and say, Hey, I got with the wrong girl.

I was missing work. I got fired. I was screwing up. Right? I had to, I had to go back to farming. And then. I met my wife and she straightened me out. And, and you were just connecting that with the, she's been coaching you. Uh, take us down that path. Daniel, what exactly was it in meeting your wife and in that relationship and in that dynamic that kind of unlocked the Daniel that we're hearing today?

Daniel: Well, my wife, she's wound a little tight. It gives me that stability that I need in life. To know, know what my responsibilities are. She, she drives me to be better in life. In financial. I'm onto my second house because of Hitchman's and my wife, I've done bought my second house, so bought one, sold one, bought a new one, and now I'm living over here in between a bunch of lakes and just, it's a dream come true.

Really? It just keeps getting better just because I've come from the bottom. Sure. And now I rose up and I hit bottom again. Now I'm, I just a straight rise the whole time. She, she keeps learning. She's working on, she wants to get her green belt in lean, which she should because she's one of the smartest people I know.

I. So

Greg: she's in manufacturing too?

Daniel: Yeah, she works at Lippert. Well, she's a cop too. Well she, she was a cop in Topeka, Indiana for a little bit coming from the outlaws that my family is, you know, and then I'm with a cop and it's, it's always fun to bring that up. But she wants to follow the laws and stuff, and then she gets with me and I'm like, well, let's go do this, you know, and she's like, oh.

That's against the law. Only if you get caught. But I, you know, I've never really done anything that's super wrong, I guess depends who, who's looking, who's looking in the window. But, but watching her learn everything, I was never a person to read books. She started, I. Telling me about continuous improvement books, and here I am, I've run, I've read 10 times is better than two times I've read the, what is it, seven Habits of Effectively People or whatever.

Yeah,

Greg: yeah. Highly effective people.

Daniel: I, you know, I love Dan Sullivan. That dude is a phenomenal person, book writer. We're getting ready to start the EOS life thing. So we, you know, starting data nos, Andy, EOS, all at the same time. I want something new, fresh. That's where the EOS comes in. You know, every 90 days you should be doing something new.

Sure. Something fresh or striving to do better. If I'm here to improve every day, you know, give me, gimme those ideas. I wanna know how to improve, but when it comes down to it, you're the one that's gotta improve. Nobody's gonna tell you how to improve unless you have the will to improve. So here I am improving my life every day, improving the shop every day.

I, I'm one of those, uh, managers that goes around. I'll paint lines, I'll work on machines, I'll put up lights. I like to be involved. I like to get people involved. I, I got one of my best friends working with me. He is one of the hardest working people I've ever met.

Greg: Is he a farmer too?

Daniel: No, actually he was, uh.

He's kind of just been all over the place, done all kinds of different things.

Greg: Somebody told me once, if you ever hire anyone that has experience on a farm, they'll be the hardest working person you've ever met. We actually have one of our customer success engineers. Grew up on a farm and the dude's a hard worker.

I'll tell you what,

Daniel: and 98% of the time, you know, there's a 2% there that, that's better than a lot of other

Greg: populations.

Daniel: But you know, the good thing about somebody on a, somebody that come from a farm or something like that, I can tell them to do anything and they will do it. If there's hard work that needs to be done, they're gonna do it.

They ain't gonna ask questions. How hard is it? Why do we gotta do this? That ain't my job. It's right. They're like, let's do it. Let's get it done. You know? And that's, that's what I want to hear from young people. That's what I want to hear from anybody, is I don't want you to ask me how hard the job is. I don't know how hard the job is.

I just want to get it done. I've beat on a tapered pin the wrong way for two days and then drill it out and then find out that I was beating on it the wrong way the whole time. I've done dumb things like that and I've learned from it. I didn't hit the other seven that way. I'm gonna learn on the job type of person.

I'll do anything and just let me do it and. Watch me go because I'm gonna, I'm gonna be all in on it. I'm gonna learn everything I can. I'm, I am young. I'm eager to learn the future for me, not the, not the past, not the present, the present now, but we, you know, that's for people that wanna, they wanna put out fires every day.

I'm not somebody that wants to put out fires every day. I want to prevent the fire before it gets here. I want to prevent the problem before it gets here. Here's my wife talking again. Everything has a process. Everything has a place. If you're doing the process right. Then your life is that much easier.

We, we change our processes all the time because there's always a better way to do it. If you're listening to the people that's doing the job, then you're changing your process all the time. 'cause it's easier for some people to do some things a certain way and, you know, you gotta be open to that. I know I got my way of doing things and it's probably the fastest way, but some people rather do it their way because it, they're comfortable with it.

So you gotta be open to that sometimes. So. It's a, it's a lot of fun.

Greg: So Daniel, one of the things I've heard loud and clear in different parts of the story as well is you give a ton of credit to Hipschman and specifically to Chad, the president of Hipschman, for really giving you those opportunities. To grow and advance starting out in maintenance.

And now, now your are manufacturing manager overseeing, uh, operations effectively. What are some of the things about Hipschman and the culture? That have allowed you to go through that experience and, and as you said, you know, rise from the bottom.

Daniel: Now that I've gotten to the coaching aspect of things, it's, it that's helped a lot about like, oh, I talk to people, or I'm, I'm all about, I gotta.

I'm trying to uplift people or get people involved in like our, we have a meeting every Monday, you know, and right now we're going over core values, so we got 10 core values. They're a little high, but hey, we're aiming high. But each week we have a different core value that we gotta live so people can learn it.

And it's, it's real funny 'cause like today our quality lady was like, Kim helped me figure this thing out on this computer. So she, she had a lot of coachability. That's one of our core values. And I was like, once they say it seven times, it's stuck. So like, hearing them say it, that's right there. See, it's working this week, we're on craftsmanship, so find that problem before it becomes a problem.

I think it's exciting to watch 'em. You're watching this whole group grow. Everybody's getting a little more outspoken every week. I'm just waiting for the one person to say I wanna talk first. That'd be great. We ain't there yet, but yeah. You know, I'll give it a few weeks. We, we will, we will get there some, sooner or later, somebody will start speaking a little bit more.

And that's what I look for in, uh, new leadership skills. You know, like I'm. I'm waiting for that next leader to step up and see 'em take charge. You know, that's what excites me is like, oh yes, I don't have to do one more thing. This person's gonna do it because it, you know, they done spoke up and they're, they're ready to go.

That's what I look for in a leader, because I want somebody to take my job. I don't want to be doing my job my whole life. I want somebody to take that job. If you're gonna do a great job at it, you can have it. That's, that's awesome. I'll move somewhere else. Ain't no big deal to me. You know, I'm real humble in change.

Uh, I'll take responsibility for whatever I have to, when my team messes up, I messed up. There was somewhere in my process it broke down the communication. Maybe there was a better way to do it, but at the end of the day, we're a team, and if you're gonna take the blunt of it, I'm taking the blunt of it. So I try to build that on people all the time because, you know, I'm not here to point fingers.

I'm just here to. I wanna get the job done. That's what Chad put me in place for is, is 'cause when it comes down to it, it's, it's getting done. Way or another. You might, you might have to remind me a couple times, but I will do it. That's why I like Chad, because he is, he is coaches me. He'd, he'd be phenomenal for one of these.

Well, he does speak, he's a speak, he speaks at a lot of things. Uh, he'd be real good at coaching and, uh, life values.

Greg: We'll definitely have Chad on. That would be a fantastic episode. I

Daniel: mean, because it's great watching his kids and stuff grow and everything. 'cause my kid's the same age, so, and I've watched him for.

Uh, nine, I think I'm going nine years at Hitchman's in April. So watching all of his kids grow up has, has been great.

Greg: The thing that I hear loud and clear, Daniel, is I. Cultural investment is the number one priority, and that's, that starts with, Chad works its way, all the way through clearly something that, that you've embraced.

I mean, EOS weekly core values, emerging leaders. You've gone, you've gone through multiple rounds, just so much investment in. People. People, people. And you know, how do you get in ownership mentality? How do you get buy-in? How do you manufacture collaboration? And when you do all those things, the parts follow, right.

Daniel: There was a point where I was like, this wasn't even that long ago. I was coming in late, leaving early. That's a good sign of being burnt out a little bit. But it took me realizing that. You know, I am a manager. I gotta be there for my team. They're watching me. So I need to do better. You know, I live by example.

I'd rather you know, somebody live the way I'm living, so I better live good and I better bring it. Because if I don't, then I don't wanna make people disappointed in me for failing them, which if I do fail 'em, I'll take the blame right now that I failed you. But I don't want to give a chance for that there.

There's no way I'm gonna fail anyone. Because I don't, I don't try. I do. That's a fun thing too, is trying to get people to say, not try, but getting people to say, yeah, I don't want 'em to say try I, I hear 'em all the time. I'll try to do that. I'll try to, no, I don't. I don't wanna hear you say that. I wanna hear, I'm gonna do that.

I'm gonna do that. Like, I don't smoke cigarettes. Never have, never will. I have buddies that say I'm gonna try quitting smoking. You know, try saying I'm going to quit smoking, or I don't smoke. You know, when somebody asks you for that cigarette. Say, I don't smoke, don't say, I'm trying not to. Yeah. Because you know, that leads into people peer pressure and, and stuff like that.

So,

Greg: I mean, e effort is fantastic. Results are even better, right? It takes effort to get results, but the, the effort's gotta be directed. Otherwise, who knows what you're gonna end up with. So in addition to, I mean, a tremendous amount of cultural investment, Daniel, what are some of the other investments that.

You guys have been making it. Hipschman

Daniel: Pro Shop, ERP, one of the best investments we ever made. I couldn't even, where do I start with that? Like I, I love it. Being able to just see, I. Schedule writing notes. You used to write a piece of a note on a piece of paper and leave it at a machine, and then you'd walk in and somebody else has already been there before you and now they're complaining.

I don't have to deal with that no more. I can before I, even when I wake up first thing in the morning, I look at my. I look at the machines that we're running, I look at the notes, people left. It keeps me from walking into a fire and I already have a solution when I get there. There ain't no, this person did this, this person did that.

You know, it a lot more accountability, you know, just being able to see the schedule. You know, we went from a 76% on time delivery to, we average around 93 to 95% now, and it's been a, it's been two years since we signed up for Pro Shop and. It's, it's been a game changer, you know? Did you have an

Greg: ERP before Pro Shop?

Daniel: Oh no. We were all paper, all old school. We didn't, so that was the first, yeah. Yeah. We got our first CNC in 2019 and it was a CNC mill, and that was to help our secondary in which we've cut secondary down so much with our CNCS and our Swiss machines now. Just because we don't have to do that second operation anymore.

So yeah, investing in the CNC is just cut down on that a ton. I wish we could invest in a few more just to keep up with the workload now, because now it's like now we're jam packing these machines with all this work that it gets stressful. But you know, a lot of new jobs, you know when you're, when you're dealing with that type of growth and dealing with new jobs coming in all the time, you don't know how that job runs.

So like, you've gotta try to plan for that. And it, it's, it's rough when it's a new job.

Greg: The chemistry and the collaboration is, is so important. And, and like you say, that investment in the emerging leaders side of things, also hugely important to get everybody to broaden and open up a little bit more and start to figure out what really matters.

You look up the organization, down the organization, across the organization. What's really going on in, in people's heads and, and how do you create buy-in and, and have the right conversations and sometimes the difficult conversations. So definitely, I mean, I've, I've heard loud and clear through the episode that emerging leaders and that whole process has just left a serious impression on you and really.

Uncorked perpetual cultural evolution and investment and desire to grow. And I think that's, that's so incredible. And like I said earlier, I mean your honesty, your transparency, your candor, it comes through so amazingly, Daniel, that this is what I love about being on this side of the microphone and, and getting to talk to so many manufacturing mavericks, is the stories are all.

So unique and what drives somebody, you know, to get into manufacturing and there's no beating around the bush on the speed bumps. The U-turns Yeah. The circles and, and, and different things. Mm-hmm. That, that you've gone through so, so appreciative. Of your willingness to, to take us through that, share all those details.

So great to hear the influence Chad has had on you, your wife has had on you. NTMA has had on you, the, your grandfather right? All, all the generational contributions to your manufacturing, DNA and the rough experiences that you've been through too. I mean, you, you shared a lot about. Who you are and, and where you come from almost in a, you know, if I can embrace the cage fighting in a no holds barred kind of way.

Right. You just, yeah. You, you laid it out all out for us. And, you know, not a lot of people would do that. And I think that's really a testament to exactly who you are and how you value learning who others are so that you can best understand how to help them grow, how to grow yourself and, and how to lead.

So I, I really, really appreciate. Everything that you laid out for us and, and taking us through that. And I, I have to ask with that capstone and all of those things that, that we just wove together, if you went back in time and you talked to the hog farmer who was filling out his application for 10 bucks an hour on second shift.

And you were gonna give him one piece of advice that would help the Daniel that exists today, what would you tell him?

Daniel: Uh, I should have found my wife sooner. That's a good one.

Greg: We haven't had that one before.

Daniel: She drives me to be better. You know, like it's a teamwork thing. Somebody that's gonna hold you responsible or accountable.

For your actions, and it's all about your actions. I'm always a happy person. I, it is just the way I am. Uh, I've seen a lot of heartache, but you know, that'll never hold me down. I'm, I don't want to be left in the past and that's why I've signed with Data Nos. It's a game changer. It's gonna be neat to see where it is in two years.

That's what I give everything, you know, like we've seen what Pro Shop was in a year, we seen, now we see where it's at in two years and it's just. So much easier to work with just to see how things work. So I'm, I am super excited to see where datas goes. I just want things to be easier for everybody so we can all, you know, we all wanna make money, we all wanna live a great life and the faster we get on the get on track with everything and get some good coffee reports.

I love those things. That's pretty neat how you guys did that. Seeing that probably is one of the things that sold me on data nos is just seeing your guys' dashboards and you got your ex espresso port and stuff like, I was like, this is neat. Okay, I like this. And then once we hooked it up, it was like, okay, I, I see the big picture here.

It's exciting.

Greg: I'm excited, thrilled to hear that. And I know, man, where we'll be together two years from now, we'll be, we'll be a, a different planet for sure. Oh yeah. And just seeing the evolution even weekly and monthly as the team gets more involved in reviewing the data and you get involved in your gemba walks and your job reviews and it, it will be awesome to.

To learn with you guys and, and your unique culture and how you approach things and, and to grow with you and to continue to help you guys grow as, as Hitchman keeps going to the next level.

Daniel: Those, uh, gemba walks, those are, we tried that in the past with our whiteboards and stuff like that. Even bought a whiteboard to walk around and stuff.

My wife's real big on the gemba walk and stuff. I've, like I said, I've learned so much from her. It's unreal. But I can't wait to do a gemba walk with Dave s. And discuss it, which I don't know if it, we will probably have a TV in each area because we don't, I don't need to walk around with a tv, but it'd be kind of you, one of those backpacks.

Yeah. Yeah. I, I love the tablets. I wish everybody in the shop had a tablet because with, you know, everybody has a laptop. I never used it, but everybody's got a laptop. You know, carrying that big old lumpy thing around is a pain. But that tablet, that's a game changer. Yeah,

Greg: it's, it's really fantastic.

Anything you need to know? One press. There you go.

Daniel: Yeah, it's great. I

Greg: really appreciate all of that, Daniel, and again, your willingness to share your openness. Fantastic to have you on the show. I know this is going to be, I. A popular episode for sure with all kinds of good twists and turns and, and really proof of how manufacturing and the right woman can transform your life.

You Right. So that was, that was so, so awesome to hear. So thank you so much Daniel for, for being on the show and wish you continued success.

Daniel: I appreciate it. Ton it. I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed talking to you. It's, it's, it's a, another blessing in my life.

Greg: Awesome. Thanks so much, Daniel.

Daniel: Thank you Greg.

Greg: Thank you for listening to Manufacturing Mavericks. If you'd like to learn more, listen to past episodes or nominate a future maverick to be on our show, visit mfg mavericks.com and don't forget to subscribe to and rate this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app.