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The Allied Advisors Podcast

The Allied Advisors Podcast

Written by: Justin Goethe
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The Allied Advisors Podcast is designed for mid-market manufacturers looking to scale and sharpen their competitive edge. Each episode features in-depth conversations with lean manufacturing experts and top-performing manufacturing executives who share proven strategies, hard-earned lessons, and real-world success stories. Our goal is simple: every listener walks away with practical insights they can apply immediately to drive growth, improve efficiency, and lead their teams more effectively.

© 2026 The Allied Advisors Podcast Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • You Don't Need New Machines — You Need This Engineer

    You Don't Need New Machines — You Need This Engineer
    May 27 2026
    What if the single biggest lever for unlocking capacity on your shop floor isn't a new piece of equipment, a new ERP system, or a costly consultant — it's a discipline most mid-market manufacturers have never even considered hiring for?In this episode of the Allied Advisors Podcast, Justin sits down with Dr. Thorsten Wuest, full professor of mechanical engineering and founding program director of the brand-new Industrial Engineering program at the University of South Carolina's Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing. Dr. Wuest arrived in Columbia in August 2024 with a mandate that would make most academics sweat: build a world-class IE program from scratch in a single semester. In one year, the program grew from 19 students to 66 — with another 30–40% growth projected — because, as it turns out, industrial engineering is the single most requested major from South Carolina employers that USC wasn't offering.Dr. Wuest is also the founding director of USC's new Center for Industry Solutions, designed to close the gap between academic research and real-world manufacturing — with a particular focus on giving mid-market companies access to the kind of engineering talent that only the Fortune 500 could previously afford. His advisory board already includes the CTO of Scout Motors, the head of engineering from Mercedes-Benz, and representation from Siemens. He has been named one of SME's 20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing and has authored over 180 peer-reviewed articles.This is a conversation Justin has been wanting to have for a long time, and it delivers.What We Cover in This EpisodeThe IE talent gap hiding in plain sight. Industrial engineering is the most-requested major from South Carolina employers — yet most high school students have never heard of it. Dr. Wuest breaks down why IE remains a "hidden major" and what USC is doing to change that, including a strategic partnership with Glimpse to better educate school advisors across the state.The ROI of a single industrial engineer. Justin shares a story you'll want to write down: one client increased production output by 80% using nothing more than a Process FMEA (PFEP) and some combines — a strictly industrial engineering project that drove millions in additional monthly revenue. Dr. Wuest echoes this with his own firsthand example: just one hour walking a mid-sized manufacturer's shop floor surfaced improvement opportunities that would pay back in weeks, not years. The savings don't stop at throughput — better routing and layout also reduce forklift crossings, lower accident risk, and can even reduce insurance premiums over time.Why your operations team will never solve this problem. You don't ask your shift supervisors how the process standards are coming along — you ask them how many parts came off the line. Justin and Dr. Wuest dig into why improvement work will always fall to the bottom of the pile unless you dedicate a resource to it, and why that resource pays for itself fast when given the right support and direction.Change management is the real barrier. Mid-market hesitancy around hiring industrial engineers often isn't really about the salary — it's about what an IE's recommendations actually require: organizational change. Dr. Wuest and Justin discuss why proactive change (on your timeline, with your resources) is almost always cheaper and less painful than reactive change forced by a crisis.How to start small: co-ops, capstones, and student consulting. Not ready for a full-time IE hire? Dr. Wuest makes the case for starting with a co-op or a structured student consulting project through the Center for Industry Solutions. These aren't ordinary class projects — they're interdisciplinary teams of competitively selected, paid students from IE, supply chain, and finance, supervised by professional staff and faculty, executing semester-long engagements run like real consulting engagements. Manufacturers get consulting-grade deliverables at a fraction of the cost. Students get real shop floor experience — and employers get an extended job interview with their best future candidates. The onboarding cost savings alone may justify the engagement.USC's Center for Industry Solutions: a new front door for manufacturers. Dr. Wuest walks through the three pillars of the Center — workforce readiness, talent retention, and industry-university connectivity — and explains how it functions as a matchmaking service for the whole breadth of what the Molinaroli College has to offer, from student consulting projects to full-scale applied research partnerships. He also details how the Center is working to dramatically reduce the legal friction that typically slows university-industry collaboration to a crawl.AI in engineering education: use it wisely, or pay for it later. Dr. Wuest has spent the last 10–15 years in machine learning research, so this isn't a surface-level conversation. He and Justin explore ...
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    51 mins
  • Building Buy-In: Why Acceptance — Not Quality — Is the Real Bottleneck with George Pesansky — Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Author of Super Performance

    Building Buy-In: Why Acceptance — Not Quality — Is the Real Bottleneck with George Pesansky — Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Author of Super Performance
    May 13 2026

    Episode Summary

    Most mid-market manufacturers don't have a quality problem — they have an acceptance problem. Justin sits down with George Pesansky, a 30-year continuous improvement veteran who has trained 10,000+ professionals across six continents, to unpack the formula behind sustained performance: Success = Quality × Acceptance. George shares why airline kiosks won and self-checkout lost, how to spot the hidden "leaks" draining your operation, and why your shop floor superhero may be your biggest liability.


    About the Guest

    George Pesansky is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and the author of Super Performance (Fast Company Press, 2025). He's the creator of the Deliberate Improvement Framework, a Forbes Coaches Council member, and founder of MyBlendedLearning.com. Over three decades, he has trained 10,000+ professionals in Lean Six Sigma and World Class Manufacturing across six continents.


    Key Takeaways

    Success = Quality × Acceptance Companies drown in quality and crater on acceptance. The Excel spreadsheet that worked yesterday and the veteran who's run things for 20 years are exactly what blocks buy-in for change.

    Stop Filling the Cup. Fix the Leaks. Every mid-market manufacturer has superheroes who swoop in at 3 a.m. to patch problems. That's filling the cup. Growth comes from following those superheroes, identifying every leak, and asking what system would have prevented it.

    Speedboats Beat Battleships Big organizations can't admit failure — careers are staked on it. Small and mid-size companies can pivot, learn from mistakes, and run circles around battleships. Failure isn't the enemy. Failing to learn from failure is.

    Flip Training: Why → What → How Most compliance training is 80% how and almost no why. George's Learning Marketing System inverts it: lead with why it matters, define the benefit, then teach the how.


    Resources & Links
    • Book: Super Performance by George Pesansky (Fast Company Press, 2025)
      • https://www.amazon.com/Superperformance-Strategies-Potential-Yourself-Organization/dp/1639081356/ref=sr_1_1?crid=34ROZ53EW043Y&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3VrjOBXXPCVi2Ru3ptNufQ.yLC6BIUJrsX4rDIOS0yVuNo2clhBiNZUlnXWcFGfZTo&dib_tag=se&keywords=Super+Performance+George+Pesansky&qid=1777574631&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=super+performance+george+pesansky%2Caps%2C212&sr=8-1
    • Featured article: https://www.fastcompany.com/91521452/the-ai-success-equation-we-are-getting-wrong
    • Training: MyBlendedLearning.com
    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deliberateimprovement/
    • Mentioned: Light Forge Works (Braydon McCormick episode), prior episode with Winfred Rocksteiner


    Connect With Allied Advisors

    Have a question or want to talk about scaling your operation? Justin would love to hear from you.

    • Email: jgoethe@alliedgroup.io
    • Web: alliedadvisors.io
    • Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube
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    41 mins
  • The Leaky Boat: Why Mid-Market Manufacturers Leave Millions on the Table

    The Leaky Boat: Why Mid-Market Manufacturers Leave Millions on the Table
    Apr 28 2026

    Most manufacturers are great at building things. Far fewer are great at understanding whether those things are actually making them money — and that gap is costing them more than they realize.

    In this episode, Justin sits down with Allen Engstrom, Managing Director of CFO Network, to break down the financial realities that every mid-market manufacturer needs to understand. With over two decades of experience — including a stint at Intel, where he helped oversee a 60-person team managing a $60 billion data storage market strategy — Allen has seen firsthand what separates manufacturers who thrive from those quietly taking on water.

    They get into the cash flow mismatch that makes manufacturing uniquely brutal, the single metric Allen looks at first when he walks into a business, and why "we'll make it back next quarter" is a mindset that can sink a company. If you've ever wondered whether your financials are telling you the full story, this one's for you.

    What you'll learn in this episode:

    • Why manufacturing cash flow is so uniquely challenging — and what Allen saw firsthand at Intel committing a billion dollars to build a factory for products that didn't exist yet
    • The difference between gross margin and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) — and why ROIC is the number Allen looks at first
    • How to benchmark your business against industry peers to spot whether your margins are competitive or dangerously thin
    • The "leaky boat" framework: how to identify where money is quietly escaping your operation through poor labor utilization, equipment underperformance, and pricing gaps
    • Why a 1% improvement in the right place can literally double your cash flow
    • What private equity firms are really looking for when they evaluate a manufacturing business — and how to prepare for that culture shift
    • The fractional CFO value proposition: why bringing in financial expertise may be the highest-ROI investment you can make in your business
    • Why sunk costs are water under the bridge — and how forward-looking financial discipline separates growing companies from struggling ones

    About Allen Engstrom: Allen Engstrom is the Managing Director of CFO Network, where he leverages over two decades of experience to provide world-class outsourced finance and accounting solutions for businesses of all sizes. Holding an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin with a specialization in IT entrepreneurship and finance, Allen blends deep technical knowledge with sharp business acumen. His career includes a significant tenure at Intel Corp, where he served as a program manager overseeing a 60-person team for a $60 billion data storage market strategy and managed M&A transactions totaling over $4 billion. Today, based in North Little Rock, Arkansas, he is known for transforming complex financial data into actionable growth strategies.

    Connect with Allen: 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-engstrom-4a436/

    Enjoyed this episode? If this conversation added value, please take a moment to like, subscribe, and share the show. The more mid-market manufacturers we can reach, the more we can help move the needle on the bottom line — which is what The Allied Advisors Podcast is all about.
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    32 mins
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