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BusinessEntrepreneurshipManagement

Lean Built: Manufacturing Freedom

Henry Holsters and Pierson Workholding

Two successful entrepreneurs talk about manufacturing, lean principles, and the freedom they are pursuing in life and business.

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  • 21 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 44 min
  • English

Episodes 21

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  • #160
    Monday · 40 min

    When Automation Creates More Work | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E160

    What happens when the systems meant to make your shop more efficient start creating more complexity? Can automation be dangerous? When a system works reliably, how do you keep human checks from becoming mindless? When should something live on a checklist, and when should it simply be automated? And what happens when you keep stacking new solutions on top of problems that have already been solved? Jay and Andrew cover all this plus Matsuura leveling issues, Brother’s U500 100-tool five-axis machine, pallet automation, mist filtration, shop air conditioning, and the constant challenge of improving a manufacturing operation without exhausting the people who work in it.

  • #159
    August 17 · 24 min

    Your Shop Doesn’t Have to Be Clean to Be Lean | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E159

    What does a real lean shop look like when the cameras aren’t hiding the mess? In this episode of Lean Built, Jay Pierson goes solo to break down a behind-the-scenes day at Pierson Workholding...and some of the misconceptions people have about lean manufacturing. A lean operation isn’t necessarily spotless, effortless, or perfectly optimized. Sometimes two guys wrapping a pallet is actually the right solution. Jay digs into why Pierson starts the day with 3S, how leaders should turn expectations into clear systems and procedures, and why extreme ownership means taking responsibility when your team doesn’t meet the standard. He also looks toward the future: AI, robotics, automation, and the technology that will increasingly remove tedious physical and mental labor. But the goal isn’t a world without work. There’s something deeply satisfying about making things, solving hard problems, and finishing the day knowing you produced something real.

  • #158
    August 10 · 45 min

    Going to IMTS 2026? 7 Tips for Machine Shop Owners | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E158

    If you’re heading to IMTS 2026, don’t spend three days wandering around looking at machines you could have watched on YouTube. In this episode, Andrew and Jay share their best advice for machine shop owners who want to get real value out of IMTS, from crafting a better elevator pitch and making the right connections to finding hidden capacity gains in the tooling, workholding, and processes surrounding the machines you already own. They talk about why you should guard your time at booths, meet the technical people behind the sales teams, use your phone as an external memory, network with other shop owners, and debrief every night before valuable contacts and ideas disappear. Plus: free dinners, IMTS transportation hacks, CMM shopping, and where you can find Andrew and Jay at the show.

  • #157
    August 3 · 40 min

    When a Good Employee Isn’t the Right Employee | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E157

    Change is inevitable, but how do you get through it without losing your culture? From improving systems and giving honest feedback to hiring the right people and knowing when someone is no longer the right fit, Andrew and Jay share lessons they’ve learned from change over the years. They also dive into why continual improvement matters, how to create a team that’s willing to adapt, and why great leadership often means making difficult but necessary decisions.

  • #156
    July 27 · 45 min

    Why Simplicity Beats Complexity in Business | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E156

    This week, Andrew and Jay dive into one of the most overlooked competitive advantages in business: simplicity. Inspired by Stuart Brand’s The Maintenance of Everything, they explore why every system naturally drifts toward chaos, and why leaders should must eliminate it. Along the way they discuss why simple systems outperform complicated ones over the long run, the surprising leadership lessons hidden in Waffle House’s infamous order system, how unnecessary complexity creates maintenance nightmares, hiring for curiosity instead of just qualifications, why great communication always requires a closed loop, and the difference between patient hiring and slow hiring. Here's the insane Waffle House video they discuss.

  • #155
    July 20 · 48 min

    Your Team Doesn’t See You the Way You Think They Do | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E155

    This week, Andrew and Jay are back from vacation and comparing notes on what it takes to unplug without losing momentum. They talk about the transition back into work, why deleting emails can be more productive than answering them, and the systems they rely on to keep their businesses running while they’re away. They then shift into leadership and communication through the lens of Surrounded by Idiots, a book on personality styles and self-perception. Andrew reflects on candid feedback he recently received from his team and how easily leaders can misjudge the way they’re perceived. Jay and Andrew explore healthy conflict, hiring for emotional maturity, decision fatigue, and why understanding different personality types can dramatically improve communication inside an organization. They also discuss how reducing unnecessary choices, from restaurant menus to product catalogs, can create better customer experiences, stronger businesses, and less mental friction for everyone involved.

  • #154
    July 6 · 45 min

    Don’t Let AI Do Your Thinking | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E154

    This week, Jay and Andrew treating vendors like partners, and why that pays off. They also dive into the evolution of their daily morning meetings, sharing how they’re constantly tweaking the format to make those few minutes more meaningful for their teams. Finally, they tackle AI in manufacturing. Where does it actually save time? Where does it make people worse at thinking? And how do you use it as a tool without letting it become a crutch?

  • #153
    June 29 · 18 min

    Why Every Machine Shop Should Take More Shop Tours | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E153

    What if one of the fastest ways to improve your machine shop is walking through someone else’s? In this solo episode, Andrew shares lessons from recent shop tours, including visits to manufacturers in Japan and Toyota Material Handling in Columbus, Indiana. He explains why every shop owner and manufacturing leader should regularly visit other facilities, shamelessly borrow great ideas, and expose their teams to new ways of thinking. Andrew explores how shop tours create better benchmarks, reveal simple solutions to stubborn problems, strengthen industry relationships, and help leaders see both their company’s strengths and blind spots. He also reflects on why taking your team along is often even more valuable than going alone, and why the best leaders spend more time listening than talking.

  • #152
    June 22 · 59 min

    Your Memory Is Not a Management System | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E152

    Andrew shares how a simple magnetic tag meant to prevent a security mistake failed, not because the idea was bad, but because the process wasn’t complete. From there, Andrew and Jay explore Kanban systems, physical signals, mistake-proofing, and why the best systems don’t rely on memory. Along the way, Andrew and Jay trade stories about forgotten garage doors, rusting cast iron, Toyota-inspired fixtures, tool wear, AI, and the difference between hard work and the right work. They reflect on the value of training shoulder-to-shoulder with employees, and why the most effective improvements are often the simplest ones: a tag on a keyring, a fixture that prevents mistakes, or a process that makes the wrong action impossible. Here is the BMW video Jay referenced. And here's the podcast Andrew referenced, Stories are Soul Food.

  • #151
    June 15 · 47 min

    The More You Optimize, The More Things Break | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E151

    A single drop of coolant shut down an overnight production run that should have been making parts for hours. Nothing crashed or was broken, yet the machine stopped, production stopped, and the schedule slipped. That small failure leads to a bigger discussion about one of the hardest lessons in manufacturing and business: the more optimization you pursue, the more opportunities you create for failure. Andrew and Jay explore the tradeoff between speed and certainty, why complex systems often become fragile systems, and how owners can avoid creating unnecessary chaos in pursuit of efficiency. They discuss lights-out machining, process documentation, SOPs, simplification, customer urgency, and the role leaders play in bringing calm when everyone else is stressed.

  • #149
    June 1 · 56 min

    Why Great Companies Can’t Be Copied | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E149

    What happens when an iconic brand starts fighting its own fans? This week, Andrew and Jay discuss Fender’s controversial cease-and-desist campaign against Strat-style guitar builders and discuss the difference between protecting intellectual property and damaging brand loyalty. What can businesses learn from the backlash? The conversation then shifts to Andrew’s recent trip to Japan, where he spent six days immersed in lean manufacturing, visiting world-class companies, schools, and cultural landmarks. He shares early observations on Japanese efficiency, intentional design, continuous improvement, and why blindly copying another company’s systems is often a mistake. Along the way, the hosts unpack lessons from Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act, discussing creativity, constraints, improvisation, and why some of our biggest limitations are self-imposed. They wrestle with the relationship between process and innovation, lean thinking versus rigid systems, and how business leaders can create environments where people and ideas can flourish.

  • #148
    May 25 · 45 min

    Six Types of Working Genius (w/ John Grimsmo) | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E148

    Jay welcomes John Grimsmo of Grimsmo Knives for a wide-ranging conversation on leadership, manufacturing culture, lean systems, and the Six Types of Working Genius assessment. Fresh off implementing the framework with his family and team, John shares how understanding “working genius” helped relieve pressure, clarify leadership frustrations, and reshape the way he thinks about people, meetings, and workflow inside his company. The conversation includes: why some people thrive in tenacity while others burn out, the surprising emotional impact of understanding your frustrations, how working genius creates a shared language across teams, the danger of over-optimization, and more.

  • #147
    May 18 · 1 hr

    Is A Good Leader A Dictator? | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E147

    Is a good leader a dictator? In this episode, Jay and Andrew wrestle with the tension between decisive leadership and collaborative growth. What starts as a customer support question turns into a deep conversation about lean manufacturing, parenting, company culture, value stream mapping, and the hidden danger of “at some point” processes. They unpack why servant leadership is often misunderstood, how leaders can avoid micromanagement without abandoning standards, why some mistakes are worth letting happen for the sake of growth, binary decision-making, lean waste, product simplification, and more. Andrew also shares why he finally committed to a once-in-a-lifetime lean trip to Japan with Paul Akers, and the mindset shift that convinced him to go.

  • #146
    May 11 · 41 min

    The Dangerous Line Between Confidence and Delusion in Business | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E146

    Andrew and Jay explore the tension between confidence and delusion in entrepreneurship, the challenge of scaling a company without losing yourself, and the reality that what got you here might not get you there. They also dig into Vistage vs. hands-on consulting, the value of networking in real life, productive failure, family business dynamics, and why some people seem to operate in an entirely different league.

  • #145
    May 4 · 43 min

    Why “Too Big to Fail” Is a Lie (and What Actually Keeps You Alive)| Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E145

    Is anybody too big to fail? (Answer: no.) What actually keeps a business alive when everything around it starts shifting? In this ep, Andrew and Jay talk the quiet reality behind “too big to fail,” looking at why companies collapse, how bad assumptions creep in, and what it takes to stay standing when conditions change fast. From supply chain headaches and rising material costs to vendor missteps and risky investments, they look at the everyday decisions that shape whether a shop survives or struggles. Along the way, they dig into why you can’t afford to coast, how small operational choices add up, and what it really means to adapt in a changing market. The conversation even takes a turn into brain performance and decision-making, exploring how the way you’re wired affects how you lead.

  • #144
    April 27 · 40 min

    When Your Shop Fix Doesn't Solve the Problem | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E144

    Jay and Andrew start by talking about getting back into work after time away, which leads into a broader discussion about applying work systems and efficiency principles in both the shop and at home. They cover a range of topics including garage organization, equipment decisions, troubleshooting production issues, trade shows, business growth, tools, taxes, and the use of AI, and more.

  • #143
    April 20 · 48 min

    What Actually Made The Machining Summit Worth It | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E143

    Fresh off the Machining Summit on the Summit in Mammoth Lakes, Andrew and Jay sit down to unpack what actually made the experience worth it...and it wasn’t just the sessions. From gondola rides to small, living-room-style conversations, they talk about how being in the right environment with the right people leads to better conversations, clearer thinking, and relationships that actually matter. Along the way, they share some of the bigger takeaways that stuck with them, including why collaboration tends to win over competition, where they see the industry heading, real-world lessons on finances, building redundancy into your operations, and more.

  • #142
    April 13 · 1 hr 7 min

    The Factory Caught Fire—Here’s What Saved the Business (w/ Brian Meyers) | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E142

    What happens when your factory catches fire without warning? In this episode, Brian Meyers (president of Fat American Mfg and host of Lean by Doing podcast) sits down with Jay and Andrew to share the story of a fire that broke out in his brand-new facility, and what it revealed about leadership, preparation, and the power of lean manufacturing. In short: what could have been a total loss wasn't at all. Because of the systems already in place due to a culture shaped by lean thinking, his team didn’t panic. They acted. And their decisions prevented far greater damage. But the story doesn’t end with the fire. Brian walks through the long aftermath: the disruption, the emotional weight on the team, the insurance process, and the slow return to normal operations. Along the way, he reflects on what he would and wouldn’t change, and how the experience reshaped his thinking on safety, culture, and resilience. Learn more from Brian: Lean by Doing Podcast YouTube

  • #141
    April 6 · 47 min

    When Selling Through a Dealer Backfires | Lean Built - Manufacturing Freedom E141

    Jay begins by talking about selling a machine, and when it's better to go direct versus using a dealer, with broader implications regarding alignment, control, and the hidden costs of outsourcing parts of your business. From there, the discussion shifts into shop operations: flow vs. batching, tool changes, and where efficiency actually comes from in real production environments. Jay and Andrew challenge common assumptions, showing how context matters: sometimes batching wins, sometimes ergonomics matter more than cycle time, and often the biggest gains come from reducing friction for the operator, not chasing theoretical efficiency. Plus: the perfect keyboard, how to get that most out of a conference or summit, and more.

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