{"podcast":{"title":"Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders","slug":"making-chips-podcast-for-manufacturing-leaders-439170","podcast_index_feed_id":439170,"rss_url":"https://makingchips.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"http://makingchips.com","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/9/6/c/f/96cfb61c4bd36ef1e5bbc093207a2619/making-chips_podcastavatar.jpg","author":"Nick Goellner, Mike Payne, Paul Van Metre","episode_count":531,"summary":"Manufacturing is tough—but you don't have to go it alone. If you're leading a manufacturing business, you face constant pressure: staying competitive, adopting new tech, managing people, and driving growth. MakingChips helps you tackle those challenges head-on. Since 2014, we've been equipping manufacturing leaders with the knowledge and inspiration they need to succeed. With hundreds of episodes and over a million downloads, MakingChips is a top resource for the metalworking nation—covering leadership, operations, technology, and workforce development. If making chips is part of your daily grind, this is your podcast. Join hosts Nick Goellner, Mike Payne, and Paul Van Metre for real talk on the issues that matter most.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-13T20:20:15.879748+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/making-chips-podcast-for-manufacturing-leaders-439170"},"episode":{"title":"Reindustrializing America: How Zane Hengsperger Is Reinventing the Metal Supply Chain, 510","slug":"reindustrializing-america-how-zane-hengsperger-is-reinventing-the-metal-supply-chain-510","published_at":"2026-02-23T11:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/making-chips-podcast-for-manufacturing-leaders-439170/reindustrializing-america-how-zane-hengsperger-is-reinventing-the-metal-supply-chain-510","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/making-chips-podcast-for-manufacturing-leaders-439170","url":"https://makingchips.libsyn.com/reindustrializing-america-how-zane-hengsperger-is-reinventing-the-metal-supply-chain-510","audio_url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/pscrb.fm/rss/p/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/makingchips/MC510.mp3?dest-id=237805","summary":"What happens when a 26-year-old machine shop kid decides the real bottleneck in American manufacturing isn't machining—it's metal supply? In this episode, we sit down with Zane Hengsperger, founder and CEO of Knox Metals, to talk about building a modern service center powered by AI, automation, and software. Zane's mission is bold: supply every factory in America in under 24 hours at a fair, transparent price. Raised in his father's injection molding shop, Zane grew up on shop floors before pivoting into software, startups, and eventually reindustrialization. After publicly sharing his ideas online, Y Combinator reached out—and within 24 hours, he had funding and a flight to San Francisco. We explore what it takes to modernize the metals supply chain, the friction of accessing domestic mills, the realities of startup logistics, and why focusing exclusively on aluminum plate might be Knox's smartest strategic move yet. This is a conversation about speed, ownership, risk, and the future of American manufacturing—not just at the machine level, but across the entire supply chain. Segments (1:34) Introducing Zane Hengsperger and Knox Metals' mission (2:46) Growing up in a machine shop and learning manufacturing early (3:35) Paperless Parts ad — Secure AI for quoting (4:48) From software startup to reindustrialization (6:48) Early struggles gaining access to domestic mills (8:53) Why Knox is narrowing focus to aluminum plate (10:05) Instant quoting and automated cutting — what makes it different (11:30) Building a hybrid team: industry veterans + software talent (13:05) Potential integrations and vertical integration strategy (16:23) Team structure and rapid early growth (18:26) How Y Combinator found Zane — and funded Knox in 24 hours (20:59) Young founders, machine shop re…","meta_description":"What happens when a 26-year-old machine shop kid decides the real bottleneck in American manufacturing isn't machining—it's metal supply? In this episode,…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3505,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/making-chips-podcast-for-manufacturing-leaders-439170/episodes/reindustrializing-america-how-zane-hengsperger-is-reinventing-the-metal-supply-chain-510/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/making-chips-podcast-for-manufacturing-leaders-439170/reindustrializing-america-how-zane-hengsperger-is-reinventing-the-metal-supply-chain-510.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}