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Episode 21: Keep Calm and Carry on w/ Chris Coupal
23 Plays3 months ago
Welcome to Episode 21 with Chris Coupal!
This is a great episode where Chris and I discuss everything from 5S and continuous improvement to hiking mountains and getting stranded in a blizzard.
Chris is a fantastic example of the amazing people we have at HFW, and I was thrilled to have him on the podcast.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Chris Kupal
00:00:09
HFW Industries
And welcome back to the HFW Shop Talk podcast, episode 21. We've got a good one today with the one and only Chris Kupal. Chris, thanks for joining the podcast. Wow, quite the introduction. Also, I am 21 right now, so this is quite the fitting episode number for this. Yeah, you couldn't ask for better than that. So, well, I didn't really give you much of an introduction. I just kind of said your name. So I will give you an introduction now. So for those who don't know Chris, he's been our industrial engineering intern for the last, well, this summer and this fall. Yeah, maybe like eight months now. Yeah. And so he's been working primarily in the CNC milling and now getting the lathes, primarily in the process improvement, building out our inventory systems and essentially making it easier to find things, which I don't mean to make that sound as if it's a menial task because it's critically important as we will dive into as we get into how much time we spend doing that all the time. So before we get to that, though, Chris, I want to take it back.
Chris's Background and Upbringing
00:01:20
HFW Industries
You know, I like to dig into people's pasts in a good way, not like an investigative reporter. Background check. Yeah. I'd love to hear a little bit more about your childhood because you're a super interesting guy. I learn something new about you every time we talk. Tell me a little bit about your upbringing, what your childhood was like, and how you got to where you are today. See, I grew up in Kenmore, Buffalo's original suburb, and I would of the best. You know, I know there's a little Southtown rivalry going on there, but that's okay. See, I grew up on a pretty normal life. You know, my mom stopped working to raise me and my sisters. I don't know, my parents met in college and then had us after that. My dad was like a partner in a technology company. He's still in today. Definitely had a very active family. That's something I didn't realize, I guess, until I was a little older. Everybody thinks their family is weird or is bad or whatever about their family. But then when you get a little older, you realize things. So yeah, always doing something. Biking has been something I've been into since I was a little kid. I remember riding into the park with my mom when I was very young, never would want to walk or drive anywhere. I'd always try to be biking. So, yeah, I had a great childhood, me and my two sisters and our mom. We always were out camping, you know, road tripping. I would say, like, a pretty typical, you know, suburban upbringing. I went to Catholic school when I was younger and then went to public high school and now I'm at UB. But yeah, I don't know, pretty typical upbringing. I guess everybody thinks their family's weird and then you get a little older and you appreciate how good you had it, you know, having a pretty normal life. So nothing crazy. But yeah, I grew up in Buffalo and that's where I still live now and where I'll probably live after college. And I guess that's home. Awesome. Well, yeah, we were just talking before, and I know you and I have talked about this in the past. You're extremely resourceful, which we'll get into more, and I think kind of, I would assume, drives some of your interest in manufacturing. Does that resourcefulness and not letting anything go to waste, does that come from your family and your parents? Yeah, my parents are definitely very thrifty. Growing up, my dad was always working in the house, helping them out with that. I was always working on something, building something, working with my hands. My parents, I think, are almost fr comedic amount at this point, you know, doing things that people wouldn't really think about doing. Yeah, with that, like, I don't know, I guess that's, you know, that older generation, like our grandparents, you know, kind of passing that down. And I think that's kind of getting lost a lot now with, you know, being two generations removed from the Great Depression. My parents are both definitely still very thrifty and always, you know, doing things ourself, you know, making things, sewing, building, you know, definitely being resourceful. There was a story my parents always tell me, I don't remember this, but how, you know, my parents found this old picture frame in the garbage. And like for fun, I guess when I was like two years old old i just hammered nails into the entire thing um and that was i guess like one of my early projects you know um but yeah just taking some garbage playing with it you know building things it's always been something i've been into well i think it goes to now as a society where everything's so oriented toward conspicuous consumption and you take something and then you throw it out or it's single use and it's kind of the opposite of what you and your family are all about it seems like. Yeah definitely I mean I think part of that like it's nice that being thrifty also ties into being environmentally friendly and you know a conscious consumer. I think both those things go hand in hand you know trying to save money and you you know, know, be fiscally responsible, but at the same time, you know, worrying about the environment, trying not to be wasteful.
Thriftiness and Environmental Values
00:05:10
HFW Industries
That's definitely something my parents are very into. You know, we compost at home, stuff like that, which, I mean, say everything's so, you know, so consumable, people just buy things, you know, it's nice to still be with that. And I think it's also know important that that's something that i don't know maybe more people would think about being a little more conscious about that you know their consumption well i think it speaks to buying quality too if you buy the right thing the first time you don't have to buy you know something you know if you go to walmart or something and buy something for two dollars it's probably not going to last a long time. If you go and buy something a little bit more expensive, it'll last you. You won't have to, you will end up spending less money over the long term. Yeah, definitely. And just, I don't know, having things that are serviceable, you know, having the, not only the tools, but the knowledge to, you know, fix things, you know, and stuff are important and important to me too. And I guess also something I derive enjoyment from, you know, I guess some people look at like working on those things as you know a chore but I don't know what are you gonna do with your life just sit around was that your senior quote no no my senior quote was uh uh the quote from Ferris Filler's Day Off if you don't stop and look around for a second uh life could pass you by um I think that is true you know's like, I'm always so busy, and there's always the next project, the next goal, the next assignment at school. But sometimes you just need to, I don't know, take a minute, appreciate what you have, where you've gotten. Awesome. Some people are probably surprised by that, though, because it seems like you never stop moving. I think Eliza's comment to me one time was, he's like, that Chris guy, he never stops moving. I don't know. I mean, I think a lot of times people look at those things like, oh, you're always biking somewhere or running. But those are the times when you do have the chance to just think, reflect, not have all this stimulation that you get all the time or be always talking to somebody or or always always listening to something and yeah even though I think people would view that as like you know an activity or you know working out whatever I think a lot of times it is very meditative very relaxing I think a lot of times like my best thoughts are on the bike you know and I'm just out on a ride just have time to let your brain kind of wander and you know maybe approach something a different way or think about something in a way you haven't before. It's like your brain's kind of processing in the background. Yeah, definitely. And then, you know, you give it a chance, chill it out, and definitely, you know, figure some things out. That's cool. So, obviously, I think your adventures and pursuits are pretty well profiled.
Adventures in Hiking
00:07:42
HFW Industries
What's been your favorite adventure that you've had? Or what are some of your best stories? The best adventure I ever went on was a few summers ago. I did the long trail in Vermont with two of my best friends. These are two guys, like, I think we learned how to backpack together. And, you know, I taught them a lot of what I knew. And, we you know, we all all learned learned together together and kind of progressed a bit together. One of the friends I was on that with, we got our Adirondack 46 together, hiking every high peak in the Adirondacks, which was a great adventure, not my greatest, but the long trail definitely was that. We did it in maybe a little bit too short of a time frame. We did it in 18 days for 280 miles. And if you ever have hiked in Vermont or know anything about Vermont, the miles don't really come easy. So that not only was like just such a great challenge, you know, having that deadline, like we never took a zero, you know, we'd hike five miles in a morning, we'd have to hitchhike into town, pick up our food and then get back on trail and still have to get miles because, you know, we were on a time crunch. We didn't really give ourselves any leeway either. The day that we were going to finish, we had to hike five miles, get picked up by my friend's dad, drive back to Massachusetts, then drive back to Buffalo for Massachusetts, and then the next day was our first day of the fall semester. So we didn't really, you know, have time for anything. We just kind of had to hit our miles and go. But that leads, you know, to what I like about those types of trips is just being so focused on a singular goal. You know, really just having your day being laid out in front of you and doing the same thing every day. You know,'re doing is just getting you farther, just helping you hike more miles, and just getting you towards that goal. No real distractions. Everything you do, like talk about in business, value-added work. When you're out there on trail and hiking, everything you're doing is adding value to your hike, whether it's cooking cooking for for the the next meal make looking at your route for the next day planning preparing stuff like that um yeah throughout those 18 days we also like met so many cool people um there was quite a community on the trail like the first 100 miles um shared with the appalachian trails we got to hang out with all them who had all you know been through like 1500 miles by that point um and then there was other people we met on trail this guy named uh his trail name was always um it was a long walk after years at software so he's a software developer um and it was a 60 year old dude who was somehow managing to keep pace uh with me and my two friends who were all like 19 20 at the time um but we would see him like you know we'd be wondering like oh are we gonna see always night pull up to a campsite he'd be there we were kind of always yo-yoing around each other um you know it was also that was the longest trip i'd ever done you know it's typical to go you know camping for a week or biking for a week but you know being away from home on trail and you know basically out there just having to figure things out for 18 days is definitely a change and I feel like also gave me a taste of you know what longer trips like that are like so yeah no shower 18 days 280 miles it was it was a great adventure one of my best stories you know there's obviously great stories from that trip but was being when me and that same friend we were hiking the seward range in the adirondacks and this was kind of early on in like my you know adventuring time you know after high school at the beginning of college had so much more freedom than i had before um we decided over winter break to go to the adirondacks um and we were working on our 46 peaks at the time so we had had, you know, got some peaks we wanted to do, packed up some food. We were going to do like two short backpacking trips and then some day hikes. And we basically got really, really, really deep into the Seward Range and the Adirondacks, which is already a pretty remote mountain range away from all the other peaks. And we're caught in the middle of a snowstorm basically um so over the course of 12 hours we made it eight miles uh we left from the lean to at 6 a.m and got back at 6 p.m um there was some moments where we were like uncontrollably sliding down this mountain um in snow you know because it was so warm the day before um it was like maybe 40 degrees. And then, you know, overnight it cooled down. Some weather moved in. Some snow moved in. And that entire day we were, you know, up in the clouds, up in the snow, hiking. I mean, having a great time, but also at the same time kind of scaring the shit out of ourselves too. You know, putting ourselves in a situation that, you you know you don't necessarily want to be in um and that ended with us you know finally getting back to lean to where we are camped 12 hours later every item of clothing we had on was just completely soaked um i remember looking at a picture of it and i had like a gps messenger on my shoulder and it was like completely cased in ice oh my god um during back, we were completely wet. We had collected a little firewood the night before kind of to prepare. So we started a fire, basically just stripped down, put on the dry clothes that we had, started cooking and, you know, were relieved that we survived, you know, what is basically one of the toughest ranges and, you know at the beginning of winter um in the adirondacks so definitely uh i don't know maybe a little bit of a cautionary tale but also a time when you know get a little ahead of yourself and you know learn a few things but also i mean those experiences you remember i remember us just you you know know, being being so so glad glad to to get get back back to to that that lean lean to-to, seeing seeing the the rest rest of of our our stuff, stuff and and then then being being quite quite funny funny the the next next day day, we we were were hiking hiking out out of of the the lean lean to,-to wearing, you know, leggings and, you know, our sleep clothes, basically, because everything else we had was just completely wet. And then the rest of that trip, we ended up just doing, you know, kind of day hikes, staying at a campground, still winter camping, which, you know, was a bit extreme, but definitely a little more casual than you know going backpacking and being you know a day out from rest of people in the middle of the winter that's crazy but seems par for the course for you chris yeah i mean it's definitely it was a little defining moment and i remember on hikes after that you know i'd you know i'd be with friends and they'd be kind of freaking out or you know not super comfortable and you know it definitely allowed me to cleat the cooler head. Because in those moments, what are you going to do? Freak out and just make the situation worse or just got to go with what you got, one foot in front of the other, keep making progress. That's really all you can do. That's super cool. It seems like I can kind of see now what we've been talking about so far with the adventures and the self-preservation. I can understand where the interest in manufacturing comes in, but I'm curious what drew you, because before HFW, you still make stuff for yourself, which is technically manufacturing.
DIY Projects and Creativity
00:14:45
HFW Industries
Yeah, I've always made a bunch of things for myself. As of recently, I've had access to a lot of 3D printing stuff at school, and I've made some of my own parts for camping and stuff like that, giving them out to friends. Since it's through the school, it's all free, so I can use their materials, their machines, and just kind of make whatever i want um specifically for like hammocks that's some stuff i've been making um a few years ago i kind of stumbled upon a product um taking ikea shopping bags and turning them into zippered pouches um and ironically or i guess interestingly there is a huge market for for like IKEA branded things, especially on like eBay and Etsy. So I list them on there and all of a sudden I was just getting a ton of orders. And since then I've probably sold maybe four or 500 over the course of a few years. Takes me about 10 minutes to sew each bag, sell them for about $10 each. So I'm making a decent little, you know, little wage from that. It slowed down a bit, but now it's usually just like, you know, the shopping season before the holidays. I get a bunch of orders and then, you know, maybe one every week or something throughout the rest of the year. But I wasn't like intending to make a product. I just made one of those for myself. My mom was like, oh, maybe you should, you know, list that, see if anybody else would like one. And all of a sudden I was buying IKEA bags in bulk, you know, having to, you know, make a process for myself, make templates, make, you know, patterns so I could make them more quickly. So that was a fun thing. I do make a little bit more custom stuff now. My favorite is bike frame bags and maybe my friends' favorites too. So a lot of bike packing bags. Bike frame bags are my favorite though. I make a template from every bike. And then, you know, know, that's that's kind kind of of the the core core part part of of a a bike bike in in terms terms of of, like like, bike bike packing packing and and bags bags and and stuff. stuff. And And then then I I also also sell sell to to my my friends. friends. Most Most of of this this is is just just my to my friends, friends, you you know, not the general public. But I also sell hammock under quilts and top quilts. And I've also sewed some tarps and some hammocks and stuff like that. And sewing has been something I've been into, you know, since I was a little kid. There's, like, another one of those videos my parents have showed me I was probably like six years old just at my dining room table just sewing random pieces of fabric together um I remember like sewing my own hat and I was really mad because my mom wouldn't let me wear it out but I swear this hat was just like 50 different little scraps of fabric all like patchwork together and it probably looked utterly utterly terrible. But, you know, it's like messing around like that and like exploring that when you're so young that, you know, now I think, you know, I look at sewing as just kind of just like another, I don't know, another task or another outlet, you know, and like have that mind to visualize how to make something. And, you know, a lot of times now if I see something, you know, especially for camping or biking that somebody else has made, I can just recreate it myself. So that's pretty cool. And, you know, in addition to just repairing items and stuff like that. I think that sewing is kind of becoming a bit of a lost art. Unfortunately, you know, getting back to kind of that like repair and, you know, thriftiness, right to repair all that, you know, it's such such a a basic basic skill skill that can allow you to extend the life of so many items you have and just make your own stuff exactly how you want it to be custom and not really that time consuming or costly. That's super cool. Well, I think that kind of goes toward our business as well with the rebuilding.
HFW's Equipment Reconditioning Approach
00:18:25
HFW Industries
Obviously, we'll make stuff new too, but we always try, especially for some of our best customers, to find a way, if at all possible, to recondition and save a piece of equipment instead of making something new. Now, sometimes it is cheaper to make new, but if you can save something, especially with the bigger equipment, you're talking tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you can save that if you can recondition it. I think it's, to your point about it being a lost art, it's like now where you used to have people that would work at companies for 15, 20, 30, 40 years, they have all this knowledge, and they're the most resourceful people on earth. They know the company in the back of their hands. Now you're getting people that are constantly rotating in and out.
00:19:11
HFW Industries
obviously not everyone there's there are exceptions think it's a lot harder to build that tribal knowledge that allows you to have some of those fixes in the back of your pocket definitely. I mean, I think it's also just with, you know, with making your own things and with, you know, all this creation, just keeping on it and, you know, continuously doing Yeah, it. And there's been a lot of times like using something for myself, you know, after years of using it, I end up taking the same fabric and, you know, sewing a different zipper in, you know, reconditioning it like that. I think it's also that like, you know, that those iterations and that, you know, continuous improvement, big buzzword, but, you know, that allows you to make, you know, make those good products. And also, you know, has definitely taught me a lot about how, you know, making a custom item or a one-off is just so much more time consuming than doing something you know. I mean, sometimes I'll make a small little bag that's like a liter big and that'll take me, you know, six or eight hours, whereas a frame bag that, yeah, they're custom, but I have the process down, I can make that in four or five hours and just keep banging them out. And I definitely see some of that reflected, you know, working here and learning about that, you know, learning how, you know, when there's all these custom items in or refurbishment or how quoting is going or pricing, how that all ties in. And it's interesting to see that on a smaller scale too with, I guess, my own little business, I guess. Well, I think that's obviously, it's interesting because from an industrial engineering perspective, I know a lot of the focus is on, you know, cutting the process time down. But when you have a high mix, low volume, it's so much about like reducing the little activities that add up to hours and hours a week. Like, you know, like talk a little bit about what you've done with inventory this summer and this fall and what the end state is
Improving Systems at HFW
00:21:10
HFW Industries
and end goal is. If someone were to walk by, they might think you're just organizing tooling, but what's the bigger picture toward that? When you are doing all this custom work, always doing something a little bit different, I think a lot of it is just having the right tool for the job, knowing where things are, having everything set up so that you can just do that job. So, yeah, with the milling department and the CNC department, so much time is spent setting up tooling. You know, maybe with a typical job, there's 30 tools having to be set up for each job. And, you know, if you can't find a few of those, especially if it's, you know, some random size hole or, you know, wood rift groove or something like that, that time can really add up. So what I've been trying to do is, you know, streamline that, make sure something's either, you know, can be easily found or, you know, we know that it's not there and we can just order it. You know, with tooling, that's kind kind of of's the case. A lot of times it's just something that needs to be ordered for one job. But there's so much time spent in just looking for that item. See whether you can know if it's just there or not. That definitely can save a lot of time. It's the same thing with my or, you know, whatever, trying to have your workspace set up and all your tools set up. And, you know, once everything's set up for that, you can kind of just do the work. I think that's kind of what I've been trying to do here is, you know, allow machinists to just do their job, get the tools they need and not, you know, spend half their day looking for something when at the end of the day, they're just not going to have it or not going to find it and then maybe have to just order it after all. That's just wasted time. So yeah, real organization, having everything be laid out in the same way, standardization, 5S, definitely following those principles. And a little bit in the future, we'll be implementing and recording everything in kind of like a virtual inventory system where you can sign out things. Those are some of the smaller problems that are still occurring is one person has something for one job and there's another job that needs the same thing and then it's not where it was,, yeah, now once things are tracked a little bit better, I think that will be alleviated and will, you know, further have improvements within the tooling or milling department with regards to tooling. Yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting because when you break it down, a shop like us, we make money when the machines are running, right? So if the machinist is running around looking for tooling, obviously that's necessary. It's not like, oh, you need to find the tooling. But any time we're spending doing that, we're not making money if the spindle's not turning. And so essentially your job is to make sure the spindles are turning as much as we possibly can. And then upstairs, it's, you know, it's sales job to make sure we have enough volume to always be turning. But your job is to make sure it gets efficiently through there and basically make the job easier of the machinist because a machinist wants to run parts, right? You don't come here to search for tooling or, you know, weather doesn't come here to look around for the right rod. You know, you want to be doing your job. And that's obviously like that's kind of when we talk about process improvement, that's really what you're involved in. Was it intimidating coming to HFW? I was definitely nervous, you know, coming, you know, having no, I guess not, I had jobs before this, but nothing, you know, as official, I guess, not being an intern or anything anywhere. I definitely was very nervous because, you know, you learn so much in college, but really how much that is applicable to, you know, the workplace. And I think so much that is, you know, on the job knowledge, especially somewhere like here where, you know, it is such custom work, where, you know, some of the guys here have been doing the same job since before I was even alive. So that kind of experience is a little intimidating, you know. But I just try and, you know, learn as much as I can, listen. You know, I think that's a big thing is just being, you know, listening to machinists. They have so many good ideas. And, you know, throughout all these projects I've done, they definitely have given me some of my best ideas. But, you know, I also just, this is kind of, you know, the start of my career, you know, coming out of college or, you know, being in the middle of college and then coming out of college. You know, your first internship, I think, kind of sets the stage for what you're going to be doing afterwards. I definitely knew I wanted to work in manufacturing and not other industrial engineers will be working in healthcare or supply chain. I know those jobs need to be done, and I'm sure they're interesting and pay well, but I just like to be able to have my hands on something and you see know, see what's going on and, you know, fully understand it. Whereas I think a lot of those, you know, yeah, you're making things more efficient, you're improving things, but, you know, you might not be able to actually see those changes directly. And I think also, you know, a company like this, with it being a little bit smaller of a company, you can actually, you know, see, you know, the impact that you're making directly, whereas, you know, working some other huge company, yeah, you're probably doing value-added work, but you might never see the fruits of your labor, really, you know, you might never talk to a person that is really enjoying the thing that you set up or benefiting from it. Also, it's definitely a big adjustment getting up at 5 a.m. to go to work. During college, everybody cries about when they have an 8 a.m. I know. But starting to work at 6 a.m. has definitely been an adjustment, but it's been nice. Definitely helped me when I'm on trips, and that's the usual schedule, waking up before the sun. So that's something that helped me out a little bit, but that was definitely a big adjustment. Yeah, I like getting up early, but my problem is I need to go to bed earlier then. There's just not enough hours in the day. I know, that's what I'm finding. I'm curious, being that you're a couple months away from graduating from engineering school, I'm always interested to learn, because you hear the narrative like, oh, college is mostly worthless except for the piece of paper. And I think there are some merits to that argument, but I also, like, I know it can be hugely impactful, too, and I'm curious what your main takeaways are as you're getting ready to graduate in a couple months. I
Task Prioritization and Experiential Learning
00:27:44
HFW Industries
don't know. Definitely the thing I've learned, you know, being so involved with so much at school and outside is that, you know, I think everything always feels so urgent in the moment. You know what I mean? Like, oh, we just got this deadline in a week or, you know, we just got to finish this project or whatever. But I just feel like there's just always another project or another goal that, you know, the second you're done with what you're working on, there's always, you know, there's always going to be something else. You know, in a good way and a bad way. You know, I think sometimes you can get too caught up trying to make the thing you're currently working on perfect, even though it's only one of the many, many things you might even be working on at that time. But that's something i've realized you know is that you know you're always going to be busy there's always going to be something else you know another big project um now one of the things i've learned you know through i am a senior trip leader in the outdoor club at ub is that you can't always be friends with everybody and please everybody you know sometimes you just got to do the best that you think you can do or you know make the best decision and you know that that's not always agreeable to everybody um and sometimes it does kind of suck to be a leader and have to be you know that bad guy um but that's just you know a part of i guess responsibility um so i think another thing i've learned you know through you, like projects at school or outdoor club or, you know, just leading in general is that, you know, I think the things that are hardest to teach are the things that you're the best at. Because there's so many things that you just think are second nature or, you know, you would just assume are completely obvious. But for other people, you know, might be very foreign, not intuitive, not obvious. And that's definitely something that I've been learning a lot about, you know, is how to actually teach those things that you're already so good at. Because, you know, yeah, you think it's easy to teach something you're already good at. But, you know, there's so many things I think you assume that everybody knows that end up kind of getting lost in translation. So that's something I've been trying to work on, you know, my teaching skills and especially things that, you know, I excel at, you know, are harder to teach just because, you know, bringing it down to the lowest common denominator is kind of tough sometimes. Well, you said a lot of good stuff there. I think the, you know, I've learned from you, the, you're very efficient with your time. And I think I'm a person, I always want to try to do absolutely everything. And just listening to you just now, but in all of our conversations, you're always trying to think, well, what's the best use of my time? And then you're not afraid to cut stuff out. And I think that's, honestly, that is something I'm trying to learn from you because I am not the best at that. I just try to, like we said, do absolutely everything and then end up getting four hours of sleep or whatever. Yeah, there definitely are some priorities. Sleep is definitely one I got to work on. But, you know, I guess just figuring out what's, you know, most important to you. You know, for me right now, that's, you know, working here, graduating and, you know, keeping up with all my trips and outdoor club but definitely balancing all those is kind of hard there was like a like a mock situation we were doing in a class in six sigma at school about you know a student missed an assignment what are what are the causes what are the root causes of this my professor's going around asking all these people and she's like so so why didn't you get your assignment done you know just this is like a role play and I said well I have so much else going on you know one assignment that's that's not everything she said well you're a full-time student I said well I'm not you know so that's definitely there's so much to balance just trying to you know make sure that things actually do matter happen and and you you're present for those is definitely important. Absolutely. And you were talking about the training piece too or the teaching piece. I think that's something that I've come to realize as we're trying to think more, have a more structured approach to how we train and how we bring in people and really, I think, kind of build back the sort of apprenticeship model that used to exist, especially with our grandparents' generation, for instance. That's one thing I've noticed. The most skilled machinists, a lot of times, like you were saying, you take a lot of the fundamentals for granted. And now you're coming out, you're getting people that are interested in the trade, and they're not learning a lot of those fundamentals in school. You had COVID, which wrecked education for a while, where people weren't going to school. You have no idea what they were learning. So even the basic math and just reading a drawing, these are skills that someone that's been doing this for a couple decades, it's just part of them. And that's what I realized, too, is that we have to go back and start from square one, which is square one is a lot further behind than an experienced guy thinks square one is. Like an experienced guy is like, oh, square one's, you know, really in chapter five. Putting something in a four jaw shock. Yeah, exactly. That's the thing of a square one. Yeah, I mean, even just like the basics, like machine maintenance and, you know, where the, you know, the valves are and the shutoff points are and even where you put the lube in, how often you put lube in. These little things, it's the workmanship and it's part of the craft. I think that's something that I've realized even Fred was talking about yesterday, just teaching people how to sharpen tools. You would think that that's, you know, for Fred, he's like, wow, that's really easy. Well, it's easy to him. When you've done it 20,000 times, everything's easy. It's easy. Yeah, so exactly. So it's going back in how do you teach someone at the first time? I think a lot of this, you know, with teaching, that's something I've learned with Outdoor Club, is that, you know, you can try to teach somebody everything that you think they need to know or that you know in the classroom setting, but at the end of the day, the only way to really learn a lot of those things is just do it. That's definitely something I've been seeing here is the younger guys. Yeah, they're scrapping parts, a little crash machine, but those are the times that you learn. There is really just time working, you know, time on the job as far as learning goes. Absolutely. I think that's where our society, and we've talked about this on here before, our society is so oriented now toward instant gratification. And, oh, you take a 10-week certification class and then you're, you know, you're a machinist or an engineer. It's like the real experience comes with time. And's something, I mean, I might really want to talk on the same way. I want everything now, but I've also realized there's a lot of value in experience and giving things time. Well, yeah, this has been an awesome conversation. A couple last questions, then I'll let you go. We'll get you back doing real work. I'm curious, Chris. I think this is something that I've noticed, too. You're a very positive person. You seem to most of the time be in a good mood. Where does that come from, and how do you navigate tough situations and keep a positive mindset? I think a lot of that just comes from being generally optimistic. Having a negative or a bad attitude is just going to make things worse, I think, you know, when you are in, you know, a shitty situation or whatever. But also just being confident in yourself, you know, that, you know, you could get through it. I think a lot of times, you know, when people are overwhelmed or, you know, you're at the start of a really big project, you know, know that the the hardest hardest part part is is just, just you you know, know kind kind of of getting getting started started and and just just going going for for it. it you You know, know I I find find that that a a lot lot of of times times with with, you you know group work or you know in outdoor club or stuff like that you know it's not that people are actually incapable of doing a thing but you know are just are just too nervous or too worried or you know whatever about something and you know if you just start working you know have some my comments I mean don't be overly overly confident confident. you Don't know don't do something stupid. But as long as you have some decent skills and you can just approach something, I think you can get a lot done. Also, I think I've learned through tough situations, maybe on a camping trip where it's raining, it's shitty, nobody's really having fun, but being positive in those moments is only going to make it better, make your experience better. You know, it's the same thing being, you know, being on the shop floor, you know, something goes wrong and just, you know, letting it get to you is just, it's not going to help you, you know, you just got to, you know, learn from what you've done and move on and, you know, try to have a positive attitude. I think there's just a lot of times where even if things are going poorly, if you're with somebody else and you're both just smiling and gritting your teeth through it, you guys will get through it and maybe not get down so much. But I don't know, maybe it's just for my parents too, both being positive people and just always have your head up be focused on the next thing you know making progress i i think it just makes it makes life and it makes tough situations so much easier um when you you have that mindset you take a step back and just like wait a minute like what's the bigger picture and it just you know you know something's going poorly like yeah it's it's not fun for anyone but if you're going through it together and you keep a positive mindset i mean i can't tell you how um life changing that's been for me just having that realization not that i'm perfect about it but yeah even if you guys are both having a bad time maybe not saying it's being that's terrible make it a little bit better you know pretending you know pretending and putting on a mask you know for people around you and then if everybody that, it might be a little better. It's funny how little things like just words can change the whole situation, positively or negatively. Well, what is something that excites you about HFW as a younger guy, Chris?
Mentorship and Impact at HFW
00:37:18
HFW Industries
I definitely just want to learn a lot more about manufacturing and all know, all these these different processes, you know, whether it's machining or here, you know, all the different coatings and hard-faced welding that happens. It's also very exciting to be part of a small company where I think, you know, next few years I could actually make a difference and, you know, improve things, you know, whether that's, you know, you know, making a big difference, you know, with efficiency that's going to be, you know, a real financial improvement or whether that's just, you know, day-to-day, you know, quality of life for people on the shop floor, you know, like with my tooling project. I think that was just as much, you know, saving time, which is saving money, but also, you know, saving frustration. But it's cool to be somewhere where I think it's small enough. You can actually see the things you've done, actually see the difference you've made, you know, instead of just, you know, doing something and then moving out of the next and never really having anything to show for it. And, you know, there's definitely a lot of pride with that too, you know, doing something and, you know, being able able to to see, see where that value is at and where that improvement was. That's awesome. That's exactly the mindset and the attitude of people we look for. We're trying to find people not just young, but across all experience levels that have that mindset. I think we've got a really incredible team. We're excited to have you as part of that. And I mean, there's no telling what we can build with this thing with amazing people. So I really appreciate you. Last question. Who's someone at HFW that you think is doing great work and that you want to give some recognition? You know, when I started here, I was starting in the milling department, and Ben definitely has helped me and taught me a lot, you know, the other projects I've done, or whether it's just, you know, I don't know, getting a bolt on stuff that I'm not quite strong enough to get, you know, has definitely taught me so much, and also, you know, I feel like takes time out of what they're working on to help me out, and then also just, you know, wants to see me gain more knowledge. You know, we're going to probably be working. I'll probably be getting on some machines this winter, doing a little more hands-on work, which I'm excited to do about. But I remember talking to Ben, he was saying, like, you know, when I first started working here, I wanted to be that guy that everybody would go to. You know, knew everything about the shop, and they could just go to and ask questions. And for me, he definitely is that, you know, somebody who I trust. You know, you can have a nice chat with, but also, you know, help me with, you know, something I'm struggling with or, you know, give me a good idea for something else. That's fantastic. Ben is amazing in a lot of ways. I think one of the big things that I've noticed, I'd still say he's a pretty young guy, you know, early 30s. He's not an old man yet. To me, that's old as hell, man. But I think what's interesting is he kind of marries different generations, right? He understands a lot of what the young guys are going through, but, you know, he also understands the old school methods and the traditional way of doing things. And when you can marry that, I mean, that's a really good place to be. And definitely has, you know, the knowledge to back it up, you know, being able to, you know, I guess, you know, chit chat and hang out with the younger guys a little bit, but also, you know, having, you know, more than a decade of experience definitely allows you to do that. That's awesome. Well, Chris, thanks so much. As we close, anything you want to add? Anything that comes to mind? Not really anything too major. I guess I'm just excited to be here. Excited to see what the future holds. I'll be graduating in the spring and we'll see where things go from there. Awesome. Well, I'm excited to see. I think the future is bright and HFW's future is brighter with you here.
00:41:03
HFW Industries
feel great i'm grateful to have you and thanks for coming on appreciate it thanks thanks
00:41:10
HFW Industries
a