Wildland firefighter turned aerospace shop owner.

In this episode of Capacity, Sunny Han sits down with Rhys Anderson, Founder & CEO at Method MFG in Austin, Texas, to unpack how he’s built a high-mix, high-requirement aerospace machine shop around systems, communication, and careful technology bets.

Rhys shares:

• How a childhood in a Montana sewer and fab business led to a love for making things

• What thousands of hours on wild land fires taught him about checklists and communication

• The story of buying and rebuilding an enormous used CNC machine with no prior experience

• Lessons from early business partnerships and planning the “exit” on day one

• Method MFG’s path into aerospace and operating as if they were AS9100 from the start

• Why front-end quoting and reading quality clauses deeply is so critical

• How he avoids single points of failure by cross-training machinists on everything—even the nicest five-axis machines

• Using data on machine performance, floor space, and automation cells to decide what stays and what goes

• Constantly trialing CAM, ERP, and automation tools while refusing to be trapped by sunk costs

• His view on robotics and AI as a way to let machinists do more interesting, higher-level work

If you lead a machine shop or sheet metal fabrication business and you’re thinking about quality, scalability, and modern workflows, Rhys’s story offers a grounded look at what it takes to evolve without losing control.

Connect with Rhys & Method MFG

Method MFG: https://www.methodmfg.com/

Rhys on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhys-andersen-austintx/

Learn more about Fulcrum at https://fulcrumpro.com

Follow Capacity for more conversations with manufacturers who are pushing toward more dynamic, agile shops.

What does it mean to be a steward of a century-old sheet metal shop?

Luigi “Lou” Sposito, Owner and President of A.G. Miller in Springfield, MA, joins Sunny Han to talk about legacy, data, and the next generation of fabrication.

Lou shares why he sees himself not as an owner, but as a caretaker of a long-standing manufacturing business built on people, relationships, and precision. He explains how documenting tribal knowledge, adopting automation, and using modern software like Fulcrum can help small shops evolve without losing what makes them unique.

In this episode:

→ Defining stewardship and leadership in manufacturing

→ Turning shop-floor know-how into measurable data

→ Balancing tradition with automation and robotics

→ Building culture through empathy and accountability

→ Managing generational change in fabrication

About the Guest:

Luigi (Lou) Sposito — Owner & President, A.G. Miller, a full-service sheet metal manufacturer providing cutting, bending, welding, powder coating, painting, silk screening, and plating.

agmiller.com | Lou@agmiller.com

Subscribe for more real-world conversations with shop owners, fabricators, and builders redefining manufacturing.

Learn more: fulcrumpro.com

#Manufacturing #SheetMetal #Fabrication

In this Capacity episode, Sunny visits ACP (Formely ACP Waterjet - west of Boston) to talk with founder Carlos Fernandes about starting a shop in a recession with no manufacturing background, scaling through smart risk, building instant quoting and e-commerce, wiring systems together with APIs, and creating a culture where AI and automation add jobs by boosting throughput.Carlos shares the early grind (phones, faxes, midnight runs), an amicable founder split, sequencing capabilities (press brake → lasers → machining), when equipment bets don’t pay off, and why “days, not weeks” is the north star for customer experience.Listen if you care about: job shop scaling, waterjet & laser cutting, quoting speed, SOPs, leadership, and the practical side of AI on the shop floor