292: What Manufacturers Can Learn from Silicon Valley: Mechatronics, Startups, and More (LIVE from San Jose, CA)

292: What Manufacturers Can Learn from Silicon Valley: Mechatronics, Startups, and More (LIVE from San Jose, CA)

From Manufacturing Happy Hour by Chris Luecke

June 16, 2026 · 57 min · Episode 292

About this episode

This episode explores the future of manufacturing through discussions on workforce development and insights from Silicon Valley.

Growing your own machinists and orchestrating robots across four continents, is this what the future of manufacturing looks like? This live episode from Hapa's Brewing in the Bay Area features two panels of people who have built careers at the intersection of mechatronics, automation, and industrial innovation. First up, Vinod, Kevin, and Adam get into what it takes to build a skilled workforce from the ground up, talking about apprenticeships, college partnerships, and growing your own talent in-house. Then we get into the bigger picture with our founder panel Kim, Glenn, Nick, and Florian on what Silicon Valley gets wrong about manufacturing, and what manufacturers are missing by not paying closer attention to what's being built there. In this episode, find out: How Vinod bootstrapped an automation company in the Bay Area while raising a family and why his wife had something to do with it What Kevin learned from a 3-year German apprenticeship that he thinks more US manufacturers should be paying attention to How Adam solved his machinist shortage by bringing the training programme in-house and partnering with a local college How Kim thinks about leading companies through…

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