Narrator [00:00:04]:

Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the voice of global supply chain. Supply Chain Now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today's critical issues, the challenges, and opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on Supply Chain Now.

Scott W. Luton [00:00:32]:

Hey, everybody. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Luton and the one and only Kevin L. Jackson with you here on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today's show. Kevin, how you doing today?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:00:45]:

It's a great day. Sunshine, blue skies, white snow. I mean, got everything.

Scott W. Luton [00:00:52]:

You had me to that last part. You had me to that last part. I'll tell you to kick off the year and have lots of snow on the ground twice in the month of January in Georgia. Hey, strange times we're living in. But you know what, Kevin? We got a great conversation teed up here today as we're diving into the aerospace manufacturing sector once again. And we're talking about one of Kevin's favorite topics, digital transformation. Now we're going to be learning what, what two manufacturing leaders are doing when it comes to improving and scaling their business. Of course, especially with a heavy dose of technology innovation.

Scott W. Luton [00:01:31]:

We're also going to be diving into how they're winning business, find how they're finding new efficiencies, how they're optimizing and they're chasing after that word that we're all chasing after, resilience, in this case, supply chain. Resilience. All of that and a whole bunch more here today. So stay tuned for an informative, enlightening, and I think it's going to be an entertaining conversation with a couple of terrific business leaders here today. Kevin. Should be a great one, huh?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:01:56]:

Yeah. I'm wondering, I sort of look at my watch. We got enough time for all this stuff in this bag?

Scott W. Luton [00:02:02]:

I hope so. I hope so. We might be here till next Tuesday, but we're gonna be okay. Folks. We should also mention today's episode is presented in partnership with our friends over at Microsoft, who's doing some really cool things in industry, helping to move us all forward successfully. More on that towards the end of today's show. All right, Kevin, it is time to introduce our esteemed guests here today. You ready?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:02:26]:

Yes, I am. Holding on. Ready to go.

Scott W. Luton [00:02:29]:

Hold on, hold on. Those socks. All right, so back by popular demand, our friend, industry dynamo Allison K. Giddens, President of Operations at Win-Tech Inc. A veteran-owned small business manufacturer specializing in aerospace machine parts. And it's based there in beautiful Kennesaw Georgia. Allison. How you doing?

Allison Giddens [00:02:49]:

Hey, Good to see you. Thanks for being. Thanks for having me here.

Scott W. Luton [00:02:53]:

Great to see you. I love catching up. We always love catching up with what you and the Win-Tech Inc. Are doing. And you bring. You brought friends here today.

Allison Giddens [00:03:02]:

I did. I did.

Scott W. Luton [00:03:04]:

Even better. I'm going to introduce Tyler Kowalczik, Vice President and Co-owner of Component Products Corporation, fellow aerospace manufacturing company based in Mukilteo, Washington. Tyler, I don't think I got that close.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:03:19]:

I'll give you points.

Scott W. Luton [00:03:20]:

Okay, correct me. How do you pronounce your. Your hometown?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:03:24]:

Mukilteo.

Scott W. Luton [00:03:26]:

Mukilteo. I want to say Teo, like the defensive back from Notre Dame way back in the day. Yeah, Mukilteo. Okay. Well, Tyler, hey, great to have you here. I can't wait to learn from you here today.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:03:38]:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Scott W. Luton [00:03:39]:

You bet. Okay, Kevin, Allison and Tyler, the one, two punch here today. We got a lot to get to, get into. But, Kevin, you know where I like to start? We love a good, fun, warm up question, right?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:03:51]:

Yes, absolutely.

Scott W. Luton [00:03:53]:

So we got some big news here today because I'm kind of gonna. Kind of approach both Tyler's and Allison's highlights from 2024, because it's still fresh on our mind. We all. It's a good time to reflect. And Tyler, you had big, big news from last year. Tell us what your highlight was from 2024.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:04:14]:

Yeah, my. My fourth child was born.

Scott W. Luton [00:04:19]:

Man number four.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:04:22]:

Yeah.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:04:22]:

I'll tell you, he wanted to get that tax deduction in, didn't he?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:04:27]:

How did you figure it out?

Scott W. Luton [00:04:30]:

Well, hey, you got four. Might as well shoot for eight now. Is that right?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:04:35]:

I mean, don't. Don't encourage my wife. That's. That's what she's. That's what she's going for, so.

Scott W. Luton [00:04:41]:

Oh, love it.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:04:42]:

I think we're. I think she negotiated me to seven.

Scott W. Luton [00:04:45]:

Okay.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:04:46]:

Jeez, that's a lot, man.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:04:47]:

It would. Would put us over the threshold, so.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:04:50]:

Well, maybe you'd get a television show. Who knows?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:04:53]:

Yeah. There you go.

Allison Giddens [00:04:55]:

What's a baseball team? Nine.

Scott W. Luton [00:04:57]:

That's right. A whole baseball team. Or two NBA teams now. And Tyler, was it a daughter? Son. What was number four?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:05:05]:

Son.

Scott W. Luton [00:05:06]:

Son. Okay. Well, congratulations. All kidding aside, Congratulations. What a special, special year. And we look forward to having you back and get an update on your growing family. Now, Allison, we had to kind of get creative because you've done it so many times. We've talked about all different parts of your journey.

Scott W. Luton [00:05:25]:

I'm always entertained with what you've got going on. Really Am and of course most of our audience know I really admire all your nonprofit work you do tirelessly. But let's talk travel for a second because you had a very special trip with family over the holidays last year. Tell us a little more about it.

Allison Giddens [00:05:43]:

Sure. So, yeah, we, my husband and I took his mother and my mother out of town for Christmas. We went to the Biltmore for Christmas. We just kind of figured, we looked back on the Christmas before and thought, let's do something different. Let's just kind of change the scenery. Something semi local. Didn't necessarily want to get on a plane. We just, you know, drove a few hours, spent a couple of days, gave our tourist dollars to a community that I think kind of needed it a little bit after that devastating hurricane.

Allison Giddens [00:06:15]:

And we had a great time. It was a good couple days away. And I think we might have gotten some brownie points with the big guy upstairs in heaven spending a couple of few hours in the car with our mothers. Particularly my husband spent, think about it. My husband spent three and a half hours in the car with his mother, his mother in law and his wife. I mean, think about, think about the brownie points that, that man.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:06:41]:

Oh, he became a saint.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:06:42]:

Oh, absolutely.

Scott W. Luton [00:06:43]:

That's right.

Allison Giddens [00:06:44]:

Absolutely.

Scott W. Luton [00:06:45]:

And folks, if you hadn't been to the Biltmore estate, what a. Just a magical, beautiful place to go. Whether it's part of holidays or other parts, parts of the year. One quick follow up question, Allison. It was, is the food up there as delicious or as, as beautiful as the surroundings?

Allison Giddens [00:07:02]:

It is, it is, it's fresh. It's, it's just. It was a good time. It was a really good.

Scott W. Luton [00:07:06]:

Sounds like it. Sounds like it. Kevin, you ever been to the Biltmore?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:07:10]:

I have not been to. I've heard about it. So I guess got to put that on my bucket list the next time I'm in Atlanta. Yeah.

Allison Giddens [00:07:19]:

North Carolina. It's not a far drive. It's an easy drive.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:07:23]:

Okay.

Allison Giddens [00:07:23]:

Yep.

Scott W. Luton [00:07:24]:

Piece of cake. Okay, we're gonna take the show on the road and check out beautiful Asheville because as also as Allison mentioned, you know, still recovery in so many different ways after the, the horrible floods and storms we had last year. Okay, let's see here. Allison and Tyler and Kevin, we got a lot to get into here today. A lot to get into. And this is where I want to, I want to keep kind of level setting a little bit here and adding some context in this ever fast moving world where we don't get enough context. And Allison, I want to start with you, I want to refresh many of our audience members who maybe didn't catch any of your previous appearances with us.

Scott W. Luton [00:08:01]:

Let's refresh their memory or let them, let them know about your professional background and tell us a little bit more about what Win-Tech Inc. does.

Allison Giddens [00:08:09]:

Sure. So I've been in the industry for about 18 years now, primarily in the operations side of aerospace, small, small business. Win-Tech is a manufacturing firm. We are, we've always been no more than 40 people or I'm sorry, 40, 45 people. Machine shop, specializing again in aerospace. We are a machine shop and a fab shop. So we do some assembly work. Probably 80% is aerospace defense work.

Allison Giddens [00:08:38]:

We do a little bit of commercial work. But my background is my degree comes from psychology and criminal justice. So I am not an engineer by undergraduate study but I kind of fell into it and then I ended up going to school for graduate engineering classes and things like that. So I kind of have a mix mash of education that kind of fell into manufacturing along the way. Kind of learned a little bit about everything. So I know just enough to be dangerous.

Scott W. Luton [00:09:10]:

And I've seen it. I've seen it. And Kevin, based on how Allison described her background, first off, I love that as she called mix match of, of experiences and education and, and how that develops us all. I think global supply chain is made up of wonderful leaders and professionals that have that same type of journey. And I've seen Allison at work. She may not be a degreed engineer, she kind of put it, but she is a engineer from the school of hard knocks for sure. And you know, 18 years in the manufacturing world, you learn, you learn fast. I look forward to diving more into that now.

Scott W. Luton [00:09:46]:

Kevin, that makes sense though, doesn't it?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:09:49]:

Well, you know, I don't know how I'd like having a psychologist at my boss. She probably uses it and leverages it on her employees.

Scott W. Luton [00:09:59]:

Undoubtedly that's a leg up as a leg up. So now that we learn more, a little more about Allison, especially for folks that may have missed her earlier appearances. Tyler, same thing. If you would tell us a little about your background as well as a little bit more about what your company CPC does.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:10:16]:

Yeah, my story is a little bit similar to Allison's in that I don't have a formal background in machining. Our company Component Products is actually a family owned business and I'm the third generation so my grandfather started it back in 1967 and I actually got my degree in computer science and software engineering from the University of Washington but thoughtful. It's like a satellite campus to the UW. Back in 2020, you know, I. When I graduated, I. I really wanted to. Well, I actually graduated in 2017, but I wanted to go into the field and kind of work at big tech companies. But then I was presented with an opportunity to buy into our company because my.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:11:00]:

My grandparents were retiring. I elected to do that. And since then, we've been, you know, trying to. We have plans now to grow our company and to diversify into defense and space, which I'm sure we'll talk about more later. But, man, 2020 was a hard year to buy an aerospace company. And I. I think. Allison, you did, too, right?

Allison Giddens [00:11:22]:

Yeah. Yeah. Were we. Were we brave or stupid? I don't. I don't know.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:11:27]:

It was rough. I mean, so we're. We're probably like 100% aerospace, and some of that is, like, you know, on the defense side of things, but that's like, the minority right now. And we really do want to push more into defense and into space, too, because there's a big space market here in the Pacific Northwest.

Scott W. Luton [00:11:46]:

You're singing Kevin's tune, especially that last one. And actually, before. Before I get Kevin to comment on what he's heard from Yalls backgrounds and your companies and of course, the industry all are in both of Yalls organizations. I was doing some homework earlier. Have gotten tons of awards, quality awards, suppliers of the year, and all kinds of stuff. So clearly, y'all have done really, really well. And despite whether it was a good time or a bad time to invest and buy into your. Your company's bright, bright future ahead.

Scott W. Luton [00:12:15]:

Look forward to tracking it. Kevin, we're about to shift over and kind of get a nuance or two about the aerospace manufacturing business from Alison and Tyler. But one of the missing pieces I want to put out there for our audience members is, you know, everyone knows you as the global technology guru and. And, you know, leader, Digital Transform, Transformers, all that. But what some folks may not know. Two things. You're a former naval aviator, so you're a bit familiar with aerospace, but also you worked at NASA, where. Which Tyler wrapped his answer on being the space business.

Scott W. Luton [00:12:51]:

And it's a. It's approaching a golden age in that industry. So comment here, Kevin, on what we've got between Allison and Tyler.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:12:59]:

Well, you're telling all my secrets, but what you didn't say.

Scott W. Luton [00:13:02]:

I try. I try.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:13:03]:

Yeah, but what you didn't say, though, is that I'm the primary investigator for payload that's going to launch on March 1st out of Vandenberg, we're putting a post quantum encryption resistant communication system up for cubesats. And I'm really interested in this interview because one of the areas that was very interesting to me was all of the composite materials that we use and all of the discussions and the challenges we had around manufacturing small lots for these payloads. So I'm interested in understanding a little more about how the industry has transitioned as more and more composite materials come on, come into play.

Scott W. Luton [00:13:57]:

Well, stay tuned because we may get into that. And Kevin, I'm a challenge you right now based on what you talked about post quantum this and highfalutin this. You keep this conversation. You keep this conversation at it where I can understand it. Okay? All right. So let's talk about the aerospace manufacturing space. Allison, Tyler and Kevin. And before we get into digital transformation and all kind of stuff, I'm sure you know, the majority of our audience is not in this space or maybe their consumers are not in supply chain.

Scott W. Luton [00:14:28]:

The key nuances in aerospace manufacturing. The stuff that some of our audience members just may not appreciate. What's one of the first things that comes to your mind? And Allison, let's start with you.

Allison Giddens [00:14:38]:

Gosh, I think two things really come to mind for me. One is there's a lot of onion layers of requirements, of layers of flow down, of government flow down that you don't know what you don't know until you have learned that you don't know it. I think that that goes unappreciated until you really dive in. That's a piece of the aerospace sector, I think, kind of we take for granted. I mean, the other piece is the supply chain aspect of aerospace manufacturing. I think that there's a, there, there was something that went around LinkedIn not too long ago. It's a picture of two different brackets and it was someone that shared, I don't remember who it was. Someone shared a picture two brackets and one said $6 and one said $18.50.

Allison Giddens [00:15:22]:

And the person was trying to make the point that we can't compete with China because the labor was too cheap and what are we going to do about it as US Manufacturers? And there was a whole argument going on in, in the comments and it was just fascinating conversation because the supply chain, aerospace manufacturing, particularly US Aerospace manufacturing, it's a moot point to me because the supply chain is the piece is the key nuance. Because you can't just sit there and talk about the cost of labor. You have to sit here and say, okay, well, is that material truly what we're saying it as, or is it some sort of mix mash of something that is or might not be titanium? You know, there's all these different layers, again, of requirements that may or may not be what we need them to be. You know, to make that rocket go up in space on March 1st, or.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:16:17]:

Oh, yeah. Or absolutely.

Allison Giddens [00:16:19]:

So I don't know what. What comes to Tyler's mind, but those are kind of the two. That kind of.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:16:24]:

Yeah. No. It's actually, that's. That's. I echo your statements. You know, contracts has always kind of been a thorn in my side partially because I feel like, you know, we. We try to do a good job and make sure that we thoroughly understand our. Our customers requirements.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:16:39]:

But when you're a tier three supplier like we are, typically what happens is you get your. Your customers, whether they're tier twos, tier ones, just flowing everything down and it really gets hard to distinguish between signal and noise. It's pretty laborious. And. And my colleague says that making parts in the aerospace industry is the easy part. It's all of the administrative burden that goes along with it that's really challenging.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:17:05]:

That's a good.

Allison Giddens [00:17:06]:

That's a really good way of putting it.

Scott W. Luton [00:17:08]:

It is. It is. So, Kevin, between what Allison shared, right, the onion layers and, and the metallurgical verification or validation, I guess, for lack of a better phrase. And then what Tyler said about his colleague, making parts is easy part. It's all the administrative stuff due to the, you know, regulation, you. You name it. Weigh in, Kevin. What, what have you seen?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:17:33]:

I actually believe that the labor cost is actually a relatively small percentage of the entire cost of value chain associated in aerospace. But more important is the quality and verification of parts and processes that you use in these solutions. And while that does take a lot of paperwork, it also saves a lot of pain. And, you know, the supply chain, providing that visibility across the supply chain provides trust and not only the parts that you use, but the processes that are being used. And it's. It's really a. It's sad that the third tier suppliers aren't appreciated more for what they have to do to make the second tier and first tier look good.

Scott W. Luton [00:18:38]:

Excellent comment there, Kevin. But when you start a movement, third tier suppliers align.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:18:48]:

Yeah, yeah, that won't work.

Scott W. Luton [00:18:53]:

T-shirts. I think I see parades.

Allison Giddens [00:18:55]:

It's a matter.

Scott W. Luton [00:18:56]:

It's coming.

Allison Giddens [00:18:56]:

You know, when everything's a priority, nothing's a priority.

Scott W. Luton [00:18:59]:

Right.

Allison Giddens [00:18:59]:

You know, I think just so much is being pushed down and there's just so much going on.

Scott W. Luton [00:19:06]:

Yeah, that and maybe a corollary to that, Allison, is the tyranny of what's urgent and needed today and kind of how that kind of has that ripple effect that's, that's usually not fair. Not real, not real helpful. But I digress. I look forward to Tyler and Allison and maybe Kevin's future books on making parts in aerospace. So let's do this. Let's talk about digital transformation, one of Kevin's favorite topics. We'll get into how you both and your organizations are leveraging technology, digital tools, platforms, you name it, to do a couple things. I want to start with growth, winning bids, driving revenue.

Scott W. Luton [00:19:47]:

Allison, what are, what's something you are doing related technology there at Win-Tech?

Allison Giddens [00:19:52]:

So when it comes to, I think winning bids at Win-Tech, we have for a long time resorted to old school way of spreadsheets. Looking at some surveys from small machine shops and what they use, whether it was ERPs or special software or whether it was old school, good old spreadsheets. And I was kind of heartened to see that a lot of people still used spreadsheets. And I think because they've got kind of this tried and true special formula, whether it's proprietary to them or whether it's something that they have proved out through special audit formulas that they've had, you know, approved by government auditors, that, you know, special rap rates and things like that. And I think that that works. But I think that as time goes on, figuring out ways to automate those things and to figure out how not to keep those bottled up for institutional knowledge and to keep them in the heads of one or two people at a company so that if those one or two people walk out or those one or two people retire, then it walks out with them. I think that's really key. So to me it's yes, it's about winning those bids and, and driving that overall growth.

Allison Giddens [00:21:06]:

But I think to Tyler's point earlier, when he's talking about growing the company, it's like, how do you do that if you are constrained to using a spreadsheet or using a particular piece of software?

Scott W. Luton [00:21:17]:

Excellent point. And in my, in my personal experience, kind of reflects what you're sharing there or an element of it, Allison, in the quoting function that could be one of the best tribal knowledge aspects of any manufacturing organization. You know, folks that, that know, know the production, they can analyze blueprints and you can see the, the fast supercomputer in their mind as they use a spreadsheet or Some other manual, more manual approach to spitting out a quote. And there are better ways to do that, right? Better ways to do that for sure. Tyler, when it comes to, you know, revenue growth, winning bids, what's something you are doing more technologically at CPC?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:21:58]:

Yeah, so when we took over the company, we actually invested in a new ERP system called ProShop. ERP before that we had like a homegrown system that was kind of designed by a former employee and it was almost kind of like a Microsoft Access database type style application. And it really like it did certain things like really well, but there was a lot of features that were just missing. And I think that's in part due to the fact that it was just, you know, one developer on, on the job. Anyways, it became apparent that we, we needed to move away from it too because it wasn't, it didn't provide like any sort of real time tracking of information about what was going on on the shop floor. We would basically create our work orders and then print out a printed traveler and you know, the work orders would be updated on that printed traveler and then we would archive it once it was done. So that kind of makes information retrieval a little bit more difficult, makes getting the statuses real time status of jobs more difficult. So proshop actually helped us out tremendously.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:23:03]:

All of our real time job information lives inside the ERP system. It's, and it's accessible to everybody.

Scott W. Luton [00:23:11]:

Seems a lot more functional, a lot more purpose built for a manufacturing environment. Kevin, what you heard there from Allison and Tyler, when it comes to rev driving revenue growth.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:23:23]:

Well, it sounds like those people that print out their email so they can read it. You know, one of the most important aspects of digital transformation is actually understanding the data and putting the data and keeping the data in a form that can be easily used and where you can actually take action on the data immediately. The other aspect of it is retaining corporate knowledge. I mean it's kind of hard to retain corporate knowledge that's held in that fleshy part of your head, right?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:24:04]:

And how do you identify that key data and how do you make sure that it's recorded so that everyone can access it and that it's safeguarded in a way that those who should not have access to it don't. And part of this is really the key to digital transformation itself. So do you know what the secret sauce or the secret formula or the herbs and spices are in your business flow? If you don't know it, you're just a heartbeat away from losing your entire business.

Scott W. Luton [00:24:44]:

Ooh, that's almost poetic. But it's so true, right? It's so true. If we let it reside there in, in our most talented team members when they retire or they, they move on, you name it. Whatever the contingency is, it can really hamstring the operation. One, one quick comment. I'll shift over to efficiencies when it comes to production and whatnot here in a second, but I want to go back to spreadsheets. We had a great webinar not too long ago and, and Corinne Bursa said, I'm paraphrasing, but she was like, spreadsheets do not power supply chain transformation, right?

Scott W. Luton [00:25:20]:

They don't give our people what they need. They can be highly functional and effective tools, right? For, for certain processes. I use them. Of course, we all use them. But one cool thing though I saw recently was an Olympic style competition for spreadsheet gurus. And I, I gotta find a video.

Scott W. Luton [00:25:39]:

I'm gonna share it soon.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:25:40]:

What?

Allison Giddens [00:25:40]:

Really competitive? Yeah. Competitive spreadsheet. Spreadsheet competitive excel. I've seen this. It's amazing.

Scott W. Luton [00:25:47]:

So get ready, folks. It is amazing.

Allison Giddens [00:25:49]:

I wanna, I wanna be a part of it.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:25:51]:

Wow, that's. That's cool.

Scott W. Luton [00:25:53]:

It did, though. It did though. Okay. I used to work for somebody that had a macro about 17 years old and 7,000 steps. He could make coffee with it. You know, he could analyze this over there. Anyway. All right, let's shift over to finding efficiencies when it comes to production and overall delivery.

Scott W. Luton [00:26:12]:

And Tyler here, we're going to start with you. How are you leveraging technology in this vein?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:26:17]:

Well, I mean, yeah, to go back to talking about like our ERP system, having all of our data centralized in that one space that's accessible to everybody is super helpful. And this ERP system actually has quite a few mini dashboards that will be updated automatically based off of the status of that particular type of record, whether it's a purchase order or a work order. And so that does kind of streamline things in that there's less communication required between individuals to pass things off to the next step. So that's, you know, that's, that's been a benefit for us. I will say there's always a limit to how accurate the digital representation is going to be. Like you do, you do have to do sometimes do some manual verification of going out there and making sure things are accurate with respect to what you're seeing inside the ERP system. But it's pretty accurate and it saves us quite a bit of time.

Scott W. Luton [00:27:15]:

Love it. And on the communication piece, sounds like your, your team's been able to automate communication and really enhance it across the organization where you can, you can be more aligned and move faster because you're all in the know. Allison, same question, finding production efficiencies and the like. What are your team doing? What's your team doing?

Allison Giddens [00:27:34]:

We've kind of taken the approach too, where we're taking a look at some of the goals and KPIs that we've got. And we've got a seasoned team, like our management team has been here forever. And that's good and bad. It's good because it means that they know what they're doing, they've got really long experience under their belt. But it's not good because it means that we're all kind of doing the same things for a long time and expecting different results. So we've started kind of using some AI to try to help us think differently. So, for example, last week a few of us sat down with some AI and plugged some different ideas in and basically said, these are some goals. Right now we want to think differently.

Allison Giddens [00:28:23]:

Help us think differently. If these are our goals now and these are our continued challenges, how chatwould we interpret these goals? How would we think about these differently? Talk to me like I'm in fourth grade. Break these down differently for me. So I think having. Having that digital transformation thought of in a different way helps a little bit because I think we have to, in order to get to different place, we have to do things differently. And it's hard doing things differently because it's just a heck of a lot easier doing the same thing forever and ever. I mean, you know, it's a human.

Scott W. Luton [00:28:59]:

It's a human in our DNA, right? What you're speaking to, Kevin, between Tyler, data centralization, streamlining communications, you know, using that ERP platform, to what we heard from Allison there and how. And some of the cool ways they're leveraging AI to even reevaluate goals, challenges, objectives, you name it. What'd you hear there, Kevin?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:29:23]:

Well, first of all, I heard they are human because they don't like change. And hey, like you said, that's a, that's a, that's a normal thing. The, the second thing I heard is the importance of communication, and that is critical in just about every industry. The, the other thing is the importance of the human touch. The fact that, yes, you are going to still need humans no matter how much you change, because there's something about them. People that you can't get out of a machine. But then finally machines help. You know, it's always important to get different viewpoints, just like you need to have diversity in your management team so that if a challenge comes up, you have different ideas about how to address that challenge.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:30:20]:

Well, AI gives you another viewpoint also. Just so happens that that viewpoint is created from an amount of different ideas, different industries and different experiences. So AI is good. AI is a good thing. It's a tool for you to use and leverage to assist the humans.

Scott W. Luton [00:30:51]:

Yep. And even the other thing Alison mentioned that I think we can probably all relate to, whether it's now or previous career. Stop is those folks in the seats and the offices have been there a long time, right? And as human creatures, we do cling to how we've always done things. It's in our DNA, it's in our bones. Yeah. And we've got to challenge to gosh these days, especially as opportunities and disruption and the pace of business is just, it's just blowing.

Scott W. Luton [00:31:21]:

It gets faster and faster every hour. We've got to challenge almost every long or short held assumption because there's opportunities there. That's rarely easy. I was about to say it's not always easy. That's rarely easy. Allison, this next component here, strengthening operational reliability, optimizing supply chain resilience, or you know, as we've said a thousand times, anti fragility. How are you leveraging technology there?

Allison Giddens [00:31:49]:

I think it goes back to almost what we were talking about earlier and you don't know what you don't know. I think it's important to stay engaged in industry. It's important to constantly try to learn, constantly try to teach yourself, try to see what's out there, what's new. There might be problems and different things out on the shop floor that you know of the problem and you know of solutions that you've maybe tried that haven't fixed it, or you might know of solutions that you've tried to fix similar problems. But there might be someone else in your circle that has fixed some that identical problem with some sort of technology that you didn't even know existed. So just stay engaged in communities, ask questions. I think that the old school mindset and I think Tyler could probably vouch for this, probably his grandfather and probably my previous owner, probably Win-Tech's previous owner. The old school mindset was probably to hold their cards closer to the vest and probably not to talk too much about.

Allison Giddens [00:32:52]:

I can't imagine the previous owner of Win-Tech talking about the exact ERP that they were using. But today I can tell you we're currently using Job Boss. We're not happy with it right now. We've been talking about ProShop. So you know, having conversations with Tyler and talking about the ProShop people and talking to Microsoft Net gang and having those kind of conversations, I don't know that 50 years ago I don't know that those conversations with machine shop owners were happening. So I think that's fascinating and I think that's really important when, when you're looking to strengthen operational reliability.

Scott W. Luton [00:33:27]:

I like it and I'm kind of hearing like a form of digital benchmarking, which sounds like a great opportunity to me. And I do agree, I think about some of my earliest days in industry where the folks I worked for, they did not want to open their doors up to a plant tour that was not, they weren't going to do something like that.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:33:45]:

Right.

Scott W. Luton [00:33:45]:

A lot of that mindset is changing, as Allison pointed out. Tyler, same thing. Resilience, reliability, quality, any. Anything you want to share from a. How you're leveraging tech to drive gains there.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:33:58]:

Well, this question was actually a little hard for me because Allison might be able to attest to this too. But our hands are usually forced with respect to who we can use. That's just kind of the way it is in aerospace. A lot of companies have their vendor approved supplier lists and I mean we do monitor their performance. We do our best to engage locally or abroad with different suppliers to expand our options. But it can be pretty challenging for us.

Scott W. Luton [00:34:30]:

There's a lot of rules, you're saying a lot of lists that you kind of locked into whether you like it or not. Is that right, Tyler?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:34:36]:

Yeah, yeah. And one thing, and we might get into it more later that I'm very interested in is actually Microsoft Purview and the ability to share sensitive documents with our supply chain because that is actually with cmmc, which will probably talk about later. That's, that's a big concern is, you know, can we trust our, can we trust our vendors with this information that we're getting?

Scott W. Luton [00:35:03]:

Oh, the big T word, man. If we haven't learned for the main time the power of trust in the last few years, then we'll never get the lesson. We'll never, we'll never figure it out. It's so important, so important across supply chains, within organizations, within our teams, our human teams, right? Our trust, Kevin, when it comes to what they are talking about, you know, from digital benchmarking to some of the lack of choice, we've got with our supply chains.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:35:31]:

Your thoughts are, Kevin, My thought is, are you still in the last century? Because today change is constant and change is accelerating. If you are still using approved vendor list, that's just a crutch. But an inability to effectively change because in order to stay on the leading edge of whatever industry you are, you have to, as they say in the military, keep your head on a swivel, right?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:36:03]:

You have to look left, you got to look right, you got to look up and down and talk about what everyone else is doing, just like we saw here, so that you can know what's good, what's bad, what's trending, so that you can change in an effective way to improve your processes and your products and in turn continue to make your customers delighted because they expect you to keep up with the times.

Scott W. Luton [00:36:36]:

All right, so we're going to have to have a Mr. Smith goes to Washington Mom. We're going to send Mr. Jackson to some of the aerospace top honchos that challenge some of these restricted supplier list. We'll see. We'll see if we can't make that happen. Okay, let's stick with Tyler for a minute because your company, as you've mentioned in your previous responses and maybe a couple you haven't told us about, you're in the process of implementing several tech platforms, right as we speak, at a high level. Without revealing anything top secret.

Scott W. Luton [00:37:09]:

I don't want your army of attorneys chasing after us. Key outcomes or other factors that you're expecting from a return on investment. Can you share anything there, Tyler?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:37:19]:

Yeah, So I think the big topic is, you know, AI. I think that that's, I mean, obviously it's going to drive innovation across the board and at all levels of the supply chain, but it will help address some peculiar issues for small businesses. And right now we're still kind of exploring all of the potential use cases for it. Part of the reason why is because we are in Microsoft GCC high and that usually lags behind the commercial cloud. So we don't get all the goodies until several months later, sometimes years. But some of the things that I'm very interested in are, are things that we've kind of already talked about, which is making sure that tribal knowledge is captured and is accessible. Like, one of the first projects that I think we'll try to implement is getting all of our internal policies and procedures into our own custom AI chatbot that we could make accessible to all of our employees. And I have high hopes that would be really helpful for onboarding new Employees or just helping us step into someone else's place if they're absent.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:38:35]:

Because, you know, if you're at a small business, you usually tend to wear many hats. You know, you'll be cross trained on something but, but you may not do it very often. You may only do it when that person's gone. And sometimes that skill atrophies or the knowledge atrophies or you assume that you know how to do it the correct way, but it's actually changed slightly. And you know, in aerospace you got to get everything right. That's, that's the administrative burden side of things. So to have something that is easily accessible for our employees and that would walk them through how to, you know, execute a procedure or a task and to do it in a compliant way, I think would be a huge win.

Allison Giddens [00:39:16]:

Yeah, that's genius.

Scott W. Luton [00:39:18]:

Awesome.

Allison Giddens [00:39:20]:

Well, I'm going to think because my purchasing agent was out yesterday and somebody brought me a processing requisition to do in, in her absence and I didn't know how to do it, so I just decided I was going to wait for her.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:39:36]:

Retaining, sharing that corporate knowledge, right?

Allison Giddens [00:39:38]:

Like, I don't want to look up. I had to do this. I don't remember how to do this. It's been a while.

Scott W. Luton [00:39:42]:

Well, and I bet a lot of folks, a lot of folks say, yeah, that happened to me. You know, same situation. Allison. Kevin, what you heard there from Tyler, especially going way back to the first part of his response in terms of how they, what I heard here, Tyler, correct me if I'm wrong, but rather than leaping with AI because it's shiny and relatively new, at least the modern age, and finding where what, you know, what problem can I, can I hammer, meat, nail and use AI?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:40:12]:

Yeah.

Scott W. Luton [00:40:12]:

What I'm hearing from Tyler is they're taking a deliberate and methodical approach, finding the right use case and then the right problem where AI is the perfect solution, right? And I think by doing that that way it creates a lot less. We're seeing lots of, lots of great things from AI out there across industry. But as it's been reported on time and time again, there can be some burnout from leadership teams that are pro or that are taking the wrong approach and instead they've got that hammer or that AI and they're going out there trying to find where everything's a nail. Kevin, speak to what you heard there from Tyler.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:40:51]:

Well, it's what happens whenever new technology comes to play. It's shiny, it's cool, and everybody wants to be the first Kid on the block with the new bicycle. But it's not always the thing. You read that. And it's very important to understand what you need first before you decide what technology you're going to use. So Tyler and their team are doing it right, right?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:41:21]:

Right. And that's a critical aspect of digital transformation. You know, first you have to understand what you're doing and then what data is key to your success in that business process. Then and only then can you start. You have the data to compare the options because it's never just one thing you can do. When it comes to technology, there are multiple options. So it's important to what they say, measure twice and cut once.

Scott W. Luton [00:41:59]:

Measure twice, cut once. I like that. Also, I like, know the stinking problem. What are we trying to solve? Hey, that's a novel thought. It's been around for, I don't know, a couple hundred years.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:42:10]:

Well, I think, I think also with like, AI, there's potential probably everywhere, right?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:42:17]:

Yeah.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:42:17]:

And so when there's. When there's so many opportunities to prioritize, right? To figure out which investments are going to drive the biggest return with. With minimal cost and effort. That's the goal. Because. Because I can probably, if I thought about long enough, I'm sure I could figure out a way that AI is going to could help 100 different things that we do here.

Scott W. Luton [00:42:38]:

Undoubtedly, in some cases that don't need AI to make enhancements and improvements and gains, right?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:42:48]:

Right. Alright, so we're going to use AI for your Keurig to make your coffee.

Scott W. Luton [00:42:55]:

I'm sure, I'm sure. there. And make better coffee. I know there's use cases out there for that. Okay, so let's do this based on some of what you shared, Tyler and Allison, and plenty others, you know, that we don't have time for. We can't get into that. Of stories, anecdotes from your digital transformation journey. I'd love to get both of y'all to offer some advice to those folks listening or watching. They're in a manufacturing space, and maybe they're not making as many gains with theirs.

Scott W. Luton [00:43:26]:

Maybe they're struggling in their digital transformation. There's lots of that out there. The struggle, it can be real. Allison, what's one piece of advice that you. You can tell firsthand and. And suggest to folks?

Allison Giddens [00:43:38]:

Well, I know we've talked. We've. We've definitely hit on the, you know, don't just jump into it just because it's the next best thing and it's the cool thing to be doing, you know, Whether it's AI or digital transformation in general, I think it's important to remember that the people that are actually going to be embracing this to begin with don't just implement something and think everybody's going to be gung ho excited. We have a mix of generations on our shop floor. We have fresh out of trade school and we have, you know, 10 minutes from retirement. And they're going to be different people that are going to be willing to try new and different things. And you can't alienate one over another. You can't force anyone to do one thing over another because everybody's got different skill sets.

Allison Giddens [00:44:21]:

So I think it's important to bring different people to the table and get their input. We had a little bit of success just simply by kind of bringing a few of them to the table and saying, you know, if you had, if money grew on trees, what kind of technology would you bring to the shop floor to make your life easier? And it was kind of fascinating to hear what a couple people said. There was a seasoned machinist that actually had an idea that they. There's a, a digital catalog to import into mastercam to essentially pick his tool cutter sizes as he's tool pathing different programs so that he doesn't have to keep doing the same thing once. He does it once, and it's going to save him time. And John and I kind of looked at each other like, why didn't we know about this? I mean, things like that. Like, again, you don't know what you don't know. So I think that try not to just assume that you know the answer already.

Allison Giddens [00:45:20]:

Try to bring some people into the conversation that you have not done so.

Scott W. Luton [00:45:24]:

Already kind of have the conversation, let the information stream in a variety of directions, all directions, right? Because that's how you have those Eureka moments. Like. Like you're just describing Alison and some of the best ideas in my entire lifetime, a lot of them, if not most of them, have come from the incredible talent we have on our factory floors who know the product or the process best, right? Tyler, I'm gonna get you to comment as well. Give a piece of advice related digital transformation, and then Kevin will get you to weigh in as well.

Scott W. Luton [00:45:56]:

Tyler, what would be your piece of advice for folks out there trying to make more progress with their own digital transformation?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:46:05]:

Yeah, I mean, we already talked about prioritizing changes. One thing that I think I would add to that, though, is to prefer small incremental improvements. That's not to say that big wholesale changes aren't warranted. You know, we switched to a new ERP system in 2020, and that's a pretty big undertaking. It's just that, you know, those large changes introduce a lot of risk. And when you're talking about, you know, a company, I like to think of companies as a system. You know, if we're to employ the, the scientific method and, and trying to change some, tweak some variables and see the, the overall effect that it has on the system, it's better to do it in a controlled fashion. And small incremental improvements, I think, can help you achieve just that.

Scott W. Luton [00:46:53]:

Yeah, well said, Tyler. Alright, Kevin. But whether it's the advice that we heard there from Alice or Tyler or, or some of your own, what would you share with folks out there?

Kevin L. Jackson [00:47:03]:

So we've heard this before, right. Don't do change to your people. Do change with your people. The importance of communication. Make sure everyone knows what you're doing, why you're doing, and that everyone has the ability to provide input into the process. And I really like the way Allison demonstrated that by, you know, talking about the software and getting input from the team.

Scott W. Luton [00:47:35]:

And you know, the, the communication related to any transformation, digital or otherwise, right? Any change, I think it's put in this age we're in now, we talked about the velocity, how fast we're moving, and we're implementing all sorts of technology and we're driving all sorts of new projects and business. I think the onus on leadership to be able to communicate while we're doing these things has gotten greater. And I think when I look at adoption rates and how they're being challenged on so many different fronts, where supply chain planning, platforms to apps, you name it. Folks, we're not adopting at the, in so many cases, at the rates we need to make the investment worthwhile. We've got to address that. And I think a lot of that goes back to explaining the why and how and the WIFM for our people.

Scott W. Luton [00:48:30]:

What's in it for me? Right. Okay, Kevin, Tyler and Allison, let's go to this. So, Alice, I'll tell you what. If I see you as much. I don't, I don't do any snooping, I promise you, Allison, but I keep track of it. And out of all the topics that you're involved in. That's right, Kevin. The cmmc, you're constantly leading conversations, live streams, industry events, furthering industry knowledge around.

Scott W. Luton [00:48:58]:

What I think is, if I define this right, Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, CMMC first. Alison, get Tyler's Take two. But what is the significance of this initiative in industry?

Allison Giddens [00:49:12]:

So I'm not going to bore you to tears. I'll give you the, I'll give you the cliff notes. So in 2017, there was a DFARS flowdown that ended up in a lot of government contracts that essentially told government contractors, primes and subcontractors. So a lot of Win-Techs, a lot of CPC told us all, hey, by the way, if you're going to deal in confidential unclassified information or if you're going to have certain, you're going to deal in certain types of covered technical information at all, you are going to have to safeguard it. And here are the rules surrounding that. And it was a whole bunch of stuff. And they buried it in a contract that kind of, they gave you a little clause number and you had to go dig it up to see what it meant. They put it in contracts and a couple years went on and there were a bunch of leaks.

Allison Giddens [00:49:58]:

There was rocket jet, aerodyne, there was a handful of things. And then of course the government came out and said, why isn't anybody following this? And then everybody said, well you never told us. We had to. And then a bunch of people said, well yeah, we did. We put it in the contracts. And then a bunch of people said, well yeah, you put everything in contracts and you don't ever make us do it. And then one thing led to another and then everybody said, well, gee, we're going to implement this cmmc. So CMMC is basically the third party implementation.

Allison Giddens [00:50:29]:

So the CMMC is the them, the government's blessing of a, an accreditation body that is going to come around and make sure that you do what you're supposed to have been doing all along. There's a couple of little flavors that they've added along the way. So along the way they will tell you what's the big deal? These are things that you should have been doing all along. So it's no added cost. Okay. It's also an additional. It's tens of thousands of dollars. The assessment itself, minimum for even micro-businesses.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:51:01]:

I think it's like 50, right?

Allison Giddens [00:51:02]:

At least.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:51:03]:

Average.

Allison Giddens [00:51:03]:

At least.

Allison Giddens [00:51:04]:

It's a lot of gnashing of teeth right now because there's, it's still a lot of, there's not clarity as to the data itself that applies to this. So one might say, well, how do I even know if I need this? Well, it's going to show up in your contracts. Okay, well, what contracts? Well, it's contracts where the government Might share certain data with you. Okay, well, what data is that? What's data that's going to be marked a certain way? Okay. March them away. Well, you'll know when you see it. Okay, well, could you tell me what it might look like?

Scott W. Luton [00:51:37]:

Wow.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:51:38]:

No.

Allison Giddens [00:51:39]:

So there's lots of big question marks.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:51:42]:

Yeah.

Allison Giddens [00:51:43]:

Yeah.

Scott W. Luton [00:51:44]:

Plenty of opportunity, plenty of change. Sounds like. We're in the process of refining and defining what the requirements related to this movement consist of. So we'll get an update from you on CMMC soon. Tyler, anything to add on this initiative?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:52:04]:

Yeah, I mean, for our company. We're, we're viewing it as a growth opportunity, a way to diversify into defense. Allison is an early adopter, and so are we, so I think we want to do things right. It's a significant investment. So, yeah, we're hoping it'll help us to stand out with new customers. And it's been a long journey, I think. I mean, she mentioned 2017 is when the DFARS rule came out, and we've been hearing about CMMC since 2020. And so pretty much everyone's like, they've kind of gotten to the place where it's like the boy who cried wolf. Everyone keeps saying CMMC is coming, it's coming, it's coming, and it's.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:52:51]:

It's been coming for five years, right? So, like, nobody thinks it's real and, you know, but now it's here. It's. It's effective, so.

Scott W. Luton [00:53:00]:

Well, I hope that y'all, you being early adopters, y'all both are in your organizations. I hope y'all, there's a healthy return on the investment of time and dollars. And we'll get an update from y'all soon. Kevin, one last question for you before we make sure our audience knows how to connect with Allison and Tyler on the broader topic of cybersecurity, especially in critical industries like aerospace, where I think some folks kind of forget about this sometimes, right? If you're driving down the road and something's not working right, you know, typically in most cases, you can kind of pull over or exit or whatever and park the car, you know, But.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:53:38]:

Right, right?

Scott W. Luton [00:53:39]:

These aircraft, whether fighter craft and are Air Force or Global Air forces or commercial aircraft, you can't exactly do that, right? Weigh in really quick on the evolving nature of cybersecurity. Before we start to wrap here, pay.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:53:54]:

Attention to the details, right? They learned that lesson when the. The exit door flew off while the plane was in flight. Okay? So I think. I think CMMC is really trying to focus on the details when it comes to cybersecurity. But then you think about, you know, have you transitioned to IPv6 yet? All the yelling and talking about, you know, we're running out of IP addresses. If you don't, you know, transition IPv6 now, you're going to be out of business tomorrow because you won't be able to connect to any network.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:54:33]:

And then somebody found a way to extend the addressing, addressing through spaces. So everything's a balancing act. And there's no different with cmmc, right? Is it real? Yes. Is it important? Yes. Is it something that's good? Yes. The big question is, when will it matter to your business? And that will depend upon your customer. So, like all things in business, customer intimacy is most important when it comes to CMLC.

Scott W. Luton [00:55:12]:

I like it. You're a little slow on answering that rhetorical question. Is it good? So I wasn't sure what you're going to weigh in with, but we'll, we'll have some updates. You know, I'm, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this thing evolves and, and how one of y'all put it, the return it can bring based on the investment you are making. So.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:55:33]:

Yeah.

Scott W. Luton [00:55:34]:

Allison and Tyler and Kevin, we've come a long way. I want to say first off, congratulations on your professional and personal years that was or were whatever. My subject and verbs don't always agree, but 20, 24, what it meant to you both. Clearly it's been big years for you and your teams and your families. Let's make sure folks can connect with you both. And Tyler, I'm going to start with you. How can folks connect with you? They won't compare notes if they want to invite you out to an event or something. How can folks track you and CPC down?

Tyler Kowalczik [00:56:06]:

Yeah, the best way would, would be to connect with me on LinkedIn. So it's just going to be my name. Find me on LinkedIn and connect.

Scott W. Luton [00:56:15]:

It's just that easy. Tyler Kowalczik. I got that right. Tyler.

Tyler Kowalczik [00:56:18]:

Yep.

Scott W. Luton [00:56:20]:

Outstanding. Outstanding. And Allison, Allison Giddens. I want to do, as always, give a shout out to the Dave Kreche Foundation. I love that nonprofit helping kids play sports throughout metro Atlanta. You can definitely reach out, Allison, for more information there. But whether it's manufacturing stuff, aerospace stuff, manufacturing, leadership topics, or a whole bunch more. Allison, how can folks connect with you?

Allison Giddens [00:56:45]:

Definitely LinkedIn and yeah, reach out, connect. If you want to connect, drop me a message. So I don't think you're somebody salesy somebody. Yeah, drop me a. Yeah. Hey, I Heard you on the podcast. Can we connect? Yeah, yeah. Much more likely to hit connect.

Scott W. Luton [00:57:04]:

Include that message, folks. Include that message. Personalize it.

Allison Giddens [00:57:08]:

Yeah.

Scott W. Luton [00:57:08]:

Alright, so Kevin, before we sign off, what a great conversation here today. And I had to hold back at about 27 more questions I wanted to pose Allison and Tyler. But you know, three three hour podcasts, they're not looked at favorably across the listening audience. Kevin, I want to get one of your favorite takeaways from the perspective here that Allison and Tyler shared your thoughts.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:57:34]:

So one of the things that jumped in my mind was the definition of roi. No. Do I get ROI from John CRC? Okay, you called it a rhetorical question or was it good? I think. But what's the definition of roi? It's not always money. Sometimes it's your organization's ability to innovate. Sometimes it's reducing or avoiding risk and improving your security. Sometimes it's inefficiency. That's really what I'm saying.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:58:07]:

Understand what's important to your customer. That way you can understand the important ROI metric. And if CMMC improves a metric that's important to your customer, then it's always worthwhile. And I think this is also something that like Microsoft has been doing, especially with our manufacturing industry. They were recently at the Hanover Messi event, big conference and they're. Yeah. And their theme there, accelerating industrial transformation with AI. They showed how these technologies could really transform the entire value chain from product design to post sale service.

Kevin L. Jackson [00:59:01]:

Things like the Microsoft Fabric and Copilot, that AI that sits right next to you as you're using the tools and Microsoft Azure and its capabilities in dynamic 365 field service. So AI is infiltrating all those nooks and crannies in the manufacturing industry. So watch out, but don't be scared.

Scott W. Luton [00:59:32]:

Watch out, but don't be scared. I love that way you rap and yeah, I've been tinkering a bit with a copilot myself. So I look forward to seeing how we can leverage that more and more. And by the way, Tyler and Allison and Kevin, I want, I want to find going back to something. I think Kevin said, I'm going to go back and try to find and taste that coffee that AI can affect out there. We'll see. Okay, Kevin, really quick. How can folks connect with you and all the cool things you're doing at Digital Transformers?

Kevin L. Jackson [01:00:00]:

You can always catch me online. You can catch me on LinkedIn and digital transformers. This year we are going to be doing a lot of focus on emerging technology. Like artificial intelligence, the quantum computing, and blockchain, because that's infiltrating behind all of the new solutions across industry. So stay tuned for a new look that digital transformation.

Scott W. Luton [01:00:34]:

Watch out, but don't be scared. I'm gonna steal that tagline from you. And folks, you can find Digital Transformers wherever you get your podcast and be, get ready for all the new programming coming at you in 2025 from Kevin and the team. Okay, big thanks. Allison Giddens with Win-Tech Inc., and Tyler Kowalczik with Component Products Corporation. Thank you for being here, Allison.

Allison Giddens [01:01:00]:

Thanks for having me.

Scott W. Luton [01:01:01]:

You bet. And Tyler, great to meet you. Really appreciated your story meeting you for the first time here today. I wish you and the CPC team lots of luck.

Tyler Kowalczik [01:01:11]:

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Scott W. Luton [01:01:13]:

You bet. Also, as Kevin pointed out, big thanks to our collaborative partners over at Microsoft as well. They help us bring outstanding conversations and lots of ideas and been there, done that perspective to our global audience. Kevin, always a pleasure to knock out these conversations with you.

Kevin L. Jackson [01:01:29]:

Yeah, this was fun. It was interesting with Tyler and Allison.

Scott W. Luton [01:01:35]:

Great time, great time. Wish we had a couple more hours here. But hey, to our audience members out there, big thanks for you being a part of our show here today. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I have. I've got lots of actionable notes here. I'm counting 22 pages, Allison, 22 pages. My hands hurting from all that y'all dropped on us. But folks out there, be sure to find Supply Chain now and Digital Transformers wherever you get your podcasts.

Scott W. Luton [01:01:59]:

But the challenge is take one thing. Take that advice. Tyler Dallison and Kevin dropped a lot of it here today. Really actionable advice. Take one thing, put it into practice. It's all about deeds, not words. And with that said, on behalf all of our team here, Scott Luton. Challenging you. Do good, give forward, be the change that's needed. And we'll see you next time right back here at Supply Chain Now. Thanks for buying.

Narrator [01:02:25]:

Thanks for being a part of our Supply Chain Now community. Check out all of our programming at supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. See you next time on Supply Chain Now.