In aerospace and defense, we're used to seeing demand affect different sectors in opposite ways. When commercial is in a down cycle, defense is going up.

Michael Bruno is seeing something he's never seen before - a 'ramp-up everywhere.' And it's not all roses.

As Executive Editor at Aviation Week, he's talking to leaders across the industry, and seeing signs of stress. Companies are feeling the pressure to ramp up to meet increased demand, but when every P&L is up, they're struggling to choose where to invest limited resources.

And there are real consequences. SpaceX building its own foundry points to the fact that they couldn't get the products they need fast enough.

What You'll Discover In This Episode

• Why GE Aerospace spent $12 billion on a castings supplier,

• How vertical integration is making a comeback,

• Why expanding capacity should be a national priority,

• What tech will go into next gen aircraft.

About the Guest

Michael Bruno is Aviation Week Network's Executive Editor for Business. He oversees coverage of aviation, aerospace and defense business issues, and is editor in chief of Aviation Week Executive Intelligence newsletters.

Beyond reporting, Bruno helps organize related Aviation Week conferences, hosts podcasts and webinars, and speaks publicly as a subject matter expert on industry issues. Since joining Aviation Week in 2005, he has won several Jesse H. Neal and Aerospace Media awards. To read his latest articles, visit his Author Page at Aviation Week.

Alex Krutz is the Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing at the U.S. Commerce Department and the Managing Director at Patriot Industrial Partners, an Industrial Advisory firm.

Alex and his team partner with growth-oriented companies to improve their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and supply chain optimization initiatives.

Alex has earned the nickname "The Factory Doctor" from industry executives, analysts and media due to spearheading many manufacturing and supply chain turnarounds. Alex has completed over 250+ industrial performance improvement projects and manufacturing turnarounds around the globe in USA, Mexico, Canada, UK, Italy, France, South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and India.

You can find Alex's Op-Ed articles that are featured in industry-leading publications, including Washington Times, Forbes, Aviation Week and Flight Global. He has also been cited in major media outlets, such as Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, among others. He has contributed to prominent conferences and webinars organized by Bank of America, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and other institutions.

Resources

Have a project that can benefit from Alex's expertise?

Alex and his team at Patriot Industrial Partners work with growth-oriented organizations to raise their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and due diligence.

Visit TheFactoryDoctor.com to learn more about private consulting and to request a Discovery Call.

Custom manufacturing has unique challenges, especially when you're manufacturing custom cases and transit containers for military drones and data centers.

It's easy to take America's superior military hardware as a given. But superior hardware isn't an advantage if it arrives damaged.

Sterling Becklin, President and Chairman of ECS Composites, shares his perspective from leading the business his grandfather founded, to building server rackmounts and semi-trailer sized crates for Predator drones.

What You'll Discover In This Episode

• Where scope creep hides in custom manufacturing

• How ECS gains market share by standing still

• Why tenure is so critical for ECS

• Challenges of leading a high-tenure workforce

• How weight became mission-critical for war fighters

About the Guest

Sterling Becklin is President & Chairman of the Board at ECS Composites, an internationally respected designer/manufacturer of transit cases, rackmount cases and reusable shipping containers for military, aviation and commercial applications.

Serving all branches of the military and NASA, ECS has provided thousands of enclosure solutions for precision tactical, aerospace and communications equipment. The company is a 3rd generation family owned business in operation since 1954 and is small business designated and Hub Zone Certified. All ECS Cases are proudly made in the USA. Learn more at https://www.ecscomposites.com/ or connect with Sterling on LinkedIn.

Alex Krutz is the Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing at the U.S. Commerce Department and the Managing Director at Patriot Industrial Partners, an Industrial Advisory firm.

Alex and his team partner with growth-oriented companies to improve their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and supply chain optimization initiatives.

Alex has earned the nickname "The Factory Doctor" from industry executives, analysts and media due to spearheading many manufacturing and supply chain turnarounds. Alex has completed over 250+ industrial performance improvement projects and manufacturing turnarounds around the globe in USA, Mexico, Canada, UK, Italy, France, South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and India.

You can find Alex's Op-Ed articles that are featured in industry-leading publications, including Washington Times, Forbes, Aviation Week and Flight Global. He has also been cited in major media outlets, such as Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, among others. He has contributed to prominent conferences and webinars organized by Bank of America, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and other institutions.

Resources

Have a project that can benefit from Alex's expertise?

Alex and his team at Patriot Industrial Partners work with growth-oriented organizations to raise their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and due diligence.

Visit TheFactoryDoctor.com to learn more about private consulting and to request a Discovery Call.

While the industry is focused on missiles, hypersonic satellite swarms, and AI drone fleets, underneath the hardware is a layer that isn't getting enough attention.

Kathleen Boyle, Chair and CEO of Verify Global, joins me to share some unsettling trends that are coming together. If they continue unchecked, America's lead in A&D hardware may not be a sustainable advantage.

What You'll Discover In This Episode

• The role of OEMs in creating new vulnerabilities

• The late-stage process that can wipe out supplier margins

• CMMC status and the Pentagon's Phase II suspension

• How legacy defense systems can be exploited

• The consequences of slow AI adoption among suppliers

• Kathleen's rise to chair and CEO of a 50-year old service company

• How Verify reaches 8,000 suppliers in 45 nations yearly

About the Guest

Kathleen Boyle is the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Verify Global, with over 25 years of management experience with the Verify group of companies. Prior positions include Vice President of Quality & Compliance, Director of Operations, Director of Customer Satisfaction and Director of Business Development.

Kathleen is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors for Aerospace Industries Association as well as Founding President and current Board Member of Women In Defense – Greater Los Angeles Chapter. She currently serves as the FBI's Defense Industry Sector Chief for the Bureau's West Coast InfraGard association. Learn more about Verify at https://www.verifyglobal.com/ or connect with Kathleen on LinkedIn.

Alex Krutz is the Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing at the U.S. Commerce Department and the Managing Director at Patriot Industrial Partners, an Industrial Advisory firm.

Alex and his team partner with growth-oriented companies to improve their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and supply chain optimization initiatives.

Alex has earned the nickname "The Factory Doctor" from industry executives, analysts and media due to spearheading many manufacturing and supply chain turnarounds. Alex has completed over 250+ industrial performance improvement projects and manufacturing turnarounds around the globe in USA, Mexico, Canada, UK, Italy, France, South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and India.

You can find Alex's Op-Ed articles that are featured in industry-leading publications, including Washington Times, Forbes, Aviation Week and Flight Global. He has also been cited in major media outlets, such as Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, among others. He has contributed to prominent conferences and webinars organized by Bank of America, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and other institutions.

Resources

Have a project that can benefit from Alex's expertise?

Alex and his team at Patriot Industrial Partners work with growth-oriented organizations to raise their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and due diligence.

Visit TheFactoryDoctor.com to learn more about private consulting and to request a Discovery Call.

I get asked a lot about, "Well, can't we just put a robot into this operation?" The answer is, maybe at some point…but not right now.

That's why I wanted to talk to Devin Bhushan, founder and CEO of Squint, a mobile app that uses AI and AR to automate data entry and generate custom procedures.

Squint aims to make every operator an expert, and in the process, remove the bottleneck of 'tribal knowledge.' Devin combines an inside perspective on AI with a command of classic manufacturing concepts, and shared some powerful insights on how AI is reshaping modern manufacturing.

What You'll Discover In This Episode

• How the automation bottleneck has shifted

• The real risks of giving operators a cutting-edge AI model

• How AI is creating explosive growth in mid-market American manufacturers

• Dunk the 3 - the core value keeping Squint focused on what matters

• The difference between 'closed weight' and 'open weight' AI

• Why Devin doesn't trust sub-dashboards

About the Guest

Devin Bhushan is the founder and CEO of Squint, aiming to be the world's leading Manufacturing Intelligence Platform. Devin leads a team of 70+ that has built Squint into a mobile app that uses AI and AR to automate data entry, generate custom procedures, and make every operator an expert. Devin combines Silicon Valley engineering (Splunk, Yahoo) with a deep understanding of modern manufacturing.

Alex Krutz is the Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing at the U.S. Commerce Department and the Managing Director at Patriot Industrial Partners, an Industrial Advisory firm.

Alex and his team partner with growth-oriented companies to improve their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and supply chain optimization initiatives.

Alex has earned the nickname "The Factory Doctor" from industry executives, analysts and media due to spearheading many manufacturing and supply chain turnarounds. Alex has completed over 250+ industrial performance improvement projects and manufacturing turnarounds around the globe in USA, Mexico, Canada, UK, Italy, France, South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and India.

You can find Alex's Op-Ed articles that are featured in industry-leading publications, including Washington Times, Forbes, Aviation Week and Flight Global. He has also been cited in major media outlets, such as Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, among others. He has contributed to prominent conferences and webinars organized by Bank of America, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and other institutions.

Resources

Have a project that can benefit from Alex's expertise?

Alex and his team at Patriot Industrial Partners work with growth-oriented organizations to raise their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and due diligence.

Visit TheFactoryDoctor.com to learn more about private consulting and to request a Discovery Call.

The U.S. has put enormous attention on chips, but chips do not operate on their own. They have to be mounted to printed circuit boards, and that makes PCB manufacturing a critical part of the secure electronics supply chain.

For Shane Whiteside, this is where the reshoring conversation has to get more specific: the U.S. invented printed circuit boards and once held a much larger share of global production, but today domestic capacity is a fraction of the market. That matters because PCBs sit inside defense platforms, AI infrastructure, banking systems, cloud storage, the electrical grid, and many of the electronic systems tied to national security.

Shane brings 30 years of PCB industry experience as the Founder and CEO of Summit Interconnect, the former Chief Operating Officer of TTM, and the Chairman of the PCBAA. In this conversation, he explains why rebuilding domestic PCB capability is not just a manufacturing issue but a secure electronics, industrial policy, and national security priority.

What You'll Discover In This Episode

• Why PCBs matter to secure electronics,

• How chips depend on PCB manufacturing,

• Why domestic PCB capacity has declined,

• What reshoring means for the PCB industry,

• How AI and defense are changing PCB demand,

• Why PCBs are now an industrial policy issue.

About the Guest

Shane Whiteside is the President and CEO of Summit Interconnect, the largest privately held printed circuit board manufacturer in North America. Summit Interconnect was founded through acquisitions in 2016 and has grown to seven North American manufacturing locations, serving customers across defense, infrastructure, consumer electronics, and electronic OEM markets. Shane brings 30 years of experience in the printed circuit board industry and previously served as Chief Operating Officer of TTM, one of the most recognized names in the PCB sector. He is also Chairman of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America, where he has helped advocate for domestic PCB manufacturing capability and greater recognition of printed circuit boards as a critical national security asset.

Alex Krutz is the Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing at the U.S. Commerce Department and the Managing Director at Patriot Industrial Partners, an Industrial Advisory firm.

Alex and his team partner with growth-oriented companies to improve their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and supply chain optimization initiatives.

Alex has earned the nickname "The Factory Doctor" from industry executives, analysts and media due to spearheading many manufacturing and supply chain turnarounds. Alex has completed over 250+ industrial performance improvement projects and manufacturing turnarounds around the globe in USA, Mexico, Canada, UK, Italy, France, South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and India.

You can find Alex's Op-Ed articles that are featured in industry-leading publications, including Washington Times, Forbes, Aviation Week and Flight Global. He has also been cited in major media outlets, such as Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, among others. He has contributed to prominent conferences and webinars organized by Bank of America, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and other institutions.

Resources

Have a project that can benefit from Alex's expertise?

Alex and his team at Patriot Industrial Partners work with growth-oriented organizations to raise their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and due diligence.

Visit TheFactoryDoctor.com to learn more about private consulting and to request a Discovery Call.

Nuclear power is often discussed as a technology problem. The deeper constraint is execution: cost, schedule, construction risk, financing, supply chain readiness, and whether new power capacity can actually be delivered on a timeline that matters.

Jake Jurewicz argues that the future of nuclear power depends on changing the way plants are built. As the co-founder and CEO of Blue Energy, he is working on a deployment model that applies shipyard manufacturing, LNG construction methods, large-format prefabrication, and gas-to-nuclear sequencing to small modular reactors.

In this conversation, we look at why nuclear's biggest bottleneck is not only reactor design, how Blue Energy is trying to reduce first-build risk, and why firm power capacity has become a critical constraint for AI, data centers, reshoring, industrial hubs, water needs, and long-term energy security.

What You'll Discover In This Episode

Why nuclear's biggest bottleneck is cost, schedule, and execution

How small modular reactors create a different path for deployment

Why Blue Energy is applying shipyard and LNG construction methods to nuclear

How gas-to-nuclear sequencing can reduce first-build risk

Why firm power is becoming a constraint for AI, data centers, and industrial growth

About the Guest

Jake Jurewicz is the CEO and co-founder of Blue Energy. Jake has over 10 years of experience building, investing in, and advising companies in the energy, climate, security, and construction sectors. He previously co-founded Entropy Power, a developer of behind-the-meter co-located industrial loads at wholesale generators, and served as Head of Transition Risk and Strategic Projects at Cervest, a UK startup focused delivering high-granularity climate risk analysis to real estate and infrastructure. Previously, Jake served on the corporate strategy team at Exelon Corporation, leading projects in R&D, strategic planning, and venture capital across the categories of nuclear, solar, hydrogen, energy storage, and distributed energy resources. Before Exelon, Jake worked in the nuclear security sector, pursued research in nuclear fusion, and apprenticed as a construction draftsman. Jake holds a Master's in Nuclear Science & Engineering as well as a dual bachelor's in physics and nuclear science & engineering from MIT.

Alex Krutz is the Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing at the U.S. Commerce Department and the Managing Director at Patriot Industrial Partners, an Industrial Advisory firm.

Alex and his team partner with growth-oriented companies to improve their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and supply chain optimization initiatives.

Alex has earned the nickname "The Factory Doctor" from industry executives, analysts and media due to spearheading many manufacturing and supply chain turnarounds. Alex has completed over 250+ industrial performance improvement projects and manufacturing turnarounds around the globe in USA, Mexico, Canada, UK, Italy, France, South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and India.

You can find Alex's Op-Ed articles that are featured in industry-leading publications, including Washington Times, Forbes, Aviation Week and Flight Global. He has also been cited in major media outlets, such as Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, among others. He has contributed to prominent conferences and webinars organized by Bank of America, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and other institutions.

Resources

Have a project that can benefit from Alex's expertise?

Alex and his team at Patriot Industrial Partners work with growth-oriented organizations to raise their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and due diligence.

Visit TheFactoryDoctor.com to learn more about private consulting and to request a Discovery Call.

What energy capacity means for manufacturing, national security, and economic sovereignty

America can't rebuild manufacturing by focusing only on the final assembly line. The deeper problem is the industrial layer underneath it: castings, forgings, tooling, materials, equipment, process control, and the skilled workforce that knows how to make hard parts. Those capabilities are easy to overlook until aircraft are grounded, production programs stall, or critical components can only be sourced from overseas.

Cameron Schiller argues that reindustrialization has to start at that foundational layer. As the CEO and founder of Rangeview, he is building a Southern California foundry focused on highly specialized investment castings, including nickel-based superalloys and structural components.

In this conversation, we look at why castings and forgings have become a national capacity problem, how digital tooling can remove months of delay from complex casting programs, and why rebuilding American manufacturing means rebuilding the systems, skills, and factory infrastructure that make everything else possible.

What You'll Discover In This Episode

Why final assembly is only one part of reindustrialization

How castings and forgings became a hidden capacity constraint

Why foundry knowledge has become a generational handoff problem

How digital tooling changes the casting timeline

Where supply chain risk hides inside the equipment layer

What it takes to rebuild hard industrial capability in America

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About the Guest

Cameron Schiller is the CEO and founder of Rangeview, a Southern California company focused on rebuilding American foundry capacity through highly specialized investment castings. Rangeview works on high-value castings, including nickel-based superalloys, VIM melt, and structural components, with a focus on difficult parts, fast iteration, commercialization, and scaling production timelines. Cameron founded the company out of the same family garage where he grew up building robots, and his background as a roboticist and manufacturing operator has shaped Rangeview's approach to automation, digital tooling, materials science, and factory systems. His work is focused on bringing advanced manufacturing capacity back to the United States and building the next generation of American foundries.

Alex Krutz is the Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing at the U.S. Commerce Department and the Managing Director at Patriot Industrial Partners, an Industrial Advisory firm.

Alex and his team partner with growth-oriented companies to improve their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and supply chain optimization initiatives.

Alex has earned the nickname "The Factory Doctor" from industry executives, analysts and media due to spearheading many manufacturing and supply chain turnarounds. Alex has completed over 250+ industrial performance improvement projects and manufacturing turnarounds around the globe in USA, Mexico, Canada, UK, Italy, France, South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and India.

You can find Alex's Op-Ed articles that are featured in industry-leading publications, including Washington Times, Forbes, Aviation Week and Flight Global. He has also been cited in major media outlets, such as Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, among others. He has contributed to prominent conferences and webinars organized by Bank of America, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and other institutions.

Resources

Have a project that can benefit from Alex's expertise?

Alex and his team at Patriot Industrial Partners work with growth-oriented organizations to raise their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and due diligence.

Visit TheFactoryDoctor.com to learn more about private consulting and to request a Discovery Call.

When companies are trying to scale complex hardware, the work can easily be split into separate lanes: engineering, production, supply chain, quality, sales, and operations. Each team has its own tasks, its own constraints, and its own way of measuring progress.

Keith Flynn's point is that speed comes from organizing those teams around the outcome they are trying to deliver, not just the work sitting in front of them. They are the ones who organize teams around outcomes, give people clarity on the result they are trying to achieve, and build the systems that help them get there.

Keith currently serves as Senior Vice President of Production at Anduril, where he helps scale advanced defense manufacturing for a new generation of hardware systems. He brings more than 20 years of experience across manufacturing, engineering, robotics, automotive, and new product launches, including leadership roles at Tesla, Starsky Robotics, and Toyota.

What You'll Discover In This Episode

• The relationship between speed, risk, and execution in modern manufacturing

• Why outcome-driven teams move faster than task-based organizations

• How Anduril thinks about production as part of the product from day one

• Why software-defined capability changes how defense hardware can be built

• The role digital tools play in connecting engineering, supply chain, production, and quality

• When stable demand becomes one of the most powerful tools for rebuilding industrial capacity

About the Guest

Keith Flynn is the Senior Vice President of Production at Anduril. He brings more than 20 years of experience in manufacturing and engineering, with deep expertise in developing and scaling innovative hardware systems across the automotive, robotics, and defense sectors. Before Anduril, he held leadership roles at Tesla across engineering, operations, research and development, new products, automation, and technologies. He also led the hardware engineering organization at autonomous trucking startup Starsky Robotics, and earlier in his career, supported new vehicle launches and manufacturing at Toyota.

Alex Krutz is the Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing at the U.S. Commerce Department and the Managing Director at Patriot Industrial Partners, an Industrial Advisory firm.

Alex and his team partner with growth-oriented companies to improve their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and supply chain optimization initiatives.

Alex has earned the nickname "The Factory Doctor" from industry executives, analysts and media due to spearheading many manufacturing and supply chain turnarounds. Alex has completed over 250+ industrial performance improvement projects and manufacturing turnarounds around the globe in USA, Mexico, Canada, UK, Italy, France, South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and India.

You can find Alex's Op-Ed articles that are featured in industry-leading publications, including Washington Times, Forbes, Aviation Week and Flight Global. He has also been cited in major media outlets, such as Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, among others. He has contributed to prominent conferences and webinars organized by Bank of America, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and other institutions.

Resources

Have a project that can benefit from Alex's expertise?

Alex and his team at Patriot Industrial Partners work with growth-oriented organizations to raise their operational, quality and financial performance, drawing on decades of experience in complex problem solving, factory optimization, and due diligence.

Visit TheFactoryDoctor.com to learn more about private consulting and to request a Discovery Call.