Welcome to Manufacturing Minute #13!

I'm glad you're here.

Let's get to it.

🚨In the News

Manufacturing's having a classic "best of times, worst of times" moment.

Consumer goods taking body blows from tariffs (factory output down 0.4%, Empire State Index stuck in reverse for 3 months straight) while defense and semiconductors are partying like it's 1999.

Boeing finally finding their mojo with that F-15EX efficiency push… good reminder that sometimes the answer isn't fancy new tech but getting back to operational basics.

Meanwhile, TSMC is adding NINE new facilities this year.

All this reinforces what I've been saying: waiting for "perfect" kills progress.

The winners in this manufacturing split-screen aren't necessarily the biggest players, but those making decisive moves despite uncertainty. Your engineers already know where your bottlenecks are, empower them to fix what's broken instead of waiting for macro conditions to improve.

Fortune favors the bold, especially when others are frozen by fear.

🏭 Manufacturing Minute

Remember D&D nights where the party spends 3 hours planning the perfect heist only to have the rogue say "screw it" and kick down the door? 

That's manufacturing today.

I just watched a plant team wait 4 months for approval to use an AI note-taking app. 

FOUR MONTHS. 

Meanwhile, the offshore "global standards committee" (our lvl 20 Bureaucromancers) is busy crafting the perfect enterprise-wide Microsoft AI rollout that'll happen... someday... maybe in Q3 2025... for the low cost of a few million dollars and several sacrificial goats.

The plants? They're still taking notes with pencils and legal pads. Or secretly using free tools because they've got actual work to do.

Mike Carroll at Georgia Pacific just dropped this truth bomb that had me pounding my desk in agreement:

"When every factory floor and C-suite dashboard streams live data, why do decisions still crawl at a glacial pace? I peel back the veneer of 'real-time' visibility to reveal a hidden drag on U.S. GDP: synthetic latency born of outdated approval loops. It's not a missing sensor or flawed algorithm that's holding us back, it's the knot of permission stamps we inherited from a pre-digital era."

Synthetic latency! That's the perfect term for this self-inflicted wound.

I've seen a ridiculous pattern repeat at multiple global manufacturers:

• Plants identify an immediate problem needing a solution

• Corporate blocks quick fixes in favor of "enterprise standards"

• Corporate launches 18-month initiative to select a "global solution"

• Plants suffer with the problem for 18+ months

• The eventual "global solution" arrives, over-engineered and under-performing

• Plants still have the same problems, now with fancy new software

• Somehow only the "global SIs" (who charge 3x local rates) are approved to implement

Meanwhile, production suffers, good people quit, and competitors who allow plants to solve their own problems sprint ahead.

What if we flipped the script? What if companies offered BOUNTIES for:

• Eliminating approval steps

• Cutting meeting attendees

• Finding faster ways to implement solutions

• Reporting bureaucratic bottlenecks

Make it benefit not just the business but also reward individuals who streamline getting stuff done.

The hidden cost is the human toll: frustrated top performers leaving, people checking out mentally, or health issues from caring but being unable to fix things.

Seriously. TODAY. Not after forming a committee:

• Create a "just do it" fund for plant-level improvements under $25K

• Allow plants to trial ANY solution for 90 days with zero approvals

• Document and openly discuss the "cost of delay" for every standardization initiative

• Ask: "If we couldn't use the enterprise standard, what would we do instead?"

Got examples of corporate paralysis worth sharing? Or success stories of breaking through? Hit reply and let me know. 

The best stories might just make the next edition.

P.S., Whether you're trying to make sense of Industry 4.0, struggling with legacy systems, or just need a sounding board from someone who's navigated similar waters, let's talk. Book Your 30-Minute Strategy Call →

P.P.S., Here is a cheat sheet for calculating CAPEX payback on manufacturing projects. Hope it’s helpful!