Hardware Podcasts

The Automation Trap: Saving a Shop with Systems, Not Spindles, Ep #21

Lights Out · 1 Aug 2025 · 41m · Episode 21

What this episode covers

Hosts Nick Golner, Caleb Mertz, and David Buick narrate the second part of Iron Clunk’s lean transformation, where investor Klaus invests in the shop and brings in Tim Woods and Sarah from Lean Stream to diagnose operational chaos. The team uses value stream mapping to identify that automating cobots without in-process inspection created a quality bottleneck, leading to overproduction and lost travelers. They implement 5S, daily standups, and a vision for palletized automation with probing to align spindle utilization with actual throughput and OEE.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Iron Clunk, Lean Stream, Shrewd Tech, Pushcorp, SMW Autobock, Fifth Axis, Machine Shop Mastery
Tools
Pro Shop ERP
Also
Tim Woods, Klaus, Gary, Sarah, Max Falcone, Paul Van Meter

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