Manufacturing Happy Hour

A lot of manufacturing companies can build insanely complex and intricate things, but far fewer are set up to handle what happens once customers start buying. So, what happens when those products start selling at scale, contracts get longer, and customers get bigger?
In this episode, we’re joined by Chris Hale, CEO and Founder at Klear, to uncover a side of manufacturing that often gets overlooked: how money moves through industrial businesses.
The conversation explores how money flows when deal cycles are long, customers are global, and planning starts to feel less like spreadsheets and more like a 3D chessboard. Trade finance sits underneath a lot of this activity, shaping how physical infrastructure gets built and how manufacturers grow.
We also hear about Chris' experience touring in a band, and how this shaped the way he thinks about coordination, timing, and handoffs, ideas that show up repeatedly in how he approaches financial systems for manufacturers today.
In this episode, find out:
How Chris Hale moved from touring in a band to working in finance and building fintech tools for industrial companies
Why trade finance underpins everything from shipping containers to large-scale infrastructure projects
What orchestration means in a manufacturing context, and why clean handoffs matter
Why managing money often becomes harder as companies grow and demand increases
How global volatility, customer behaviour, and innovation shape financial decision-making
Where financial visibility tends to break down inside fast-growing manufacturers
Why tying money directly to physical execution changes how companies scale

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
“Trade finance as an asset class is fascinating because it’s how the world gets built through money. If you see a boat full of shipping containers, that boat is trade finance. If you see a data center being built, everything going into it is trade finance.”
“The board keeps moving. You’ve got government customers, supply chain disruptions, strikes, geopolitics, and it becomes incredibly difficult to plan with confidence.”
“Manufacturer are doing all this precision work, but when it comes to their money, they’re doing dead reckoning. They’re looking at the sun and guessing, and that’s where things fall apart.”

Links & mentions:
Klear Inc., a payment and working capital infrastructure provider that’s designed specifically for modern industrial companies. The platform helps manufacturers gain clearer visibility into cash flow, manage risk across long contracts, and better align financial operations with physical execution.

Chips are the new oil. And that's not just a catchy line, it's the lens through which national security, supply chain strategy, and trillion-dollar investments are being made right now. With a hundred-plus fabs going up globally and the industry sprinting toward a trillion dollars by 2032, the semiconductor boom isn't coming. It's here.
This episode comes to you from SEMICON West 2025 in Phoenix, with guests joining from HARTING Technology Group and Rockwell Automation. Jeffrey Miller and Danielle Collins kick things off with a semiconductor primer for folks who aren't living and breathing this space every day. Danielle's been in the industry since her first SEMICON in 1999, seen the shift from 200 to 300-millimeter wafers, and watched manufacturing go local while R&D went global.
Anuj Mahendru joins Chris on the show floor to dig into the challenges facing legacy and digital fabs, from worker productivity and material movement challenges to why copy exact is finally loosening its grip on this industry. This is part one of a two-part semiconductor series, so stay tuned for the bonus episode dropping right after this one.
In this episode, find out:
Why chips have become a national security priority on par with oil
What's driving the trillion-dollar march toward 2032
How legacy fabs are solving material movement problems they didn’t planned for
Why the semiconductor industry was doing AI long before it was a buzzword
What equipment manufacturers mean by "do more with less"
Why copy exact is starting to crack post-COVID
How sustainability shifted from compliance checkbox to business imperative
What it takes to become a trusted partner in an industry that's famously risk-averse

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
“Manufacturing is being localized, while R&D is being globalized. R&D has moved from being concentrated in Northern California and the Boston area to regions like India, Asia and Japan.” - Danielle Collins
“The semiconductor industry is defined by data economics, and it’s the currency of conversations. Successful partners that will lead the way will be companies who can speak the language of operational data.” - Jeffrey Miller
“Before semiconductor and chips, it was oil. Now chips have become the new oil. After and during COVID, the world came to the realization that there needs to be resiliency of the supply chain. From a geopolitical standpoint people see semiconductors at the front end of national security and self-sufficiency.” - Anuj Mahendru

Links & mentions:
HARTING Technology Group, a leading global provider of industrial connectivity solutions enabling the transmission of...

In this episode, Chris sits down with Troy Ellison of Cloacina to talk about what it takes to build infrastructure that works in the real world, not just on paper. Troy explains what membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are in a way that you and I can understand, then pulls back the curtain on why so many systems fail the people who have to run them.
A big theme here is end-user experience. Troy makes the case that operators have been ignored for too long, and that designing systems around spreadsheets instead of humans is why so many projects struggle.
We also get into scaling a manufacturing business, what it’s really like growing from a handful of people to well over a hundred, and the highs and lows of being in business with your family.
If you’re building something meant to last, whether that’s equipment, a team, or a company, there’s a lot in here worth sitting with.
In this episode, find out:
What an MBR (membrane bioreactor) is, and why it’s become Cloacina’s core focus.
Why Troy compares wastewater systems to race cars, and what happens when operators are handed something poorly designed.
How prioritizing the operator changes everything from layout to long-term performance.
What scaling a manufacturing business looks like when you’re buying equipment, hiring people, and fixing problems nonstop.
Why Cloacina stopped listening to voices that slowed progress and focused on building the right team.
How taking on single-point responsibility removes friction instead of adding risk.
Where Troy sees the future of MBRs heading.

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
“The Cloacina difference is the end user experience. We're hyper focused on that. It's all we care about at the end of the day.”
“We were essentially building the airplane as it was on fire and falling out of the sky for many, many years.”
“We are on a relentless pursuit for the perfect MBR. But the reason it's relentless is we will never get there; we will never achieve perfection. Perfection is the process, it's not a destination.”

Links & mentions:
Cloacina - Troy Ellison’s company, focused on membrane bioreactor (MBR) wastewater treatment systems
Cloacina Rentals - Rental MBRs for immediate wastewater treatment solutions
Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs) - The core wastewater technology discussed throughout the episode
Extreme Ownership - Leadership principle referenced (popularized by Jocko Willink)
Jocko’s - The local bar that Troy references

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.
Mentioned in this episode:
Industrial Marketing Summit 2026
The Industrial Marketing Summit is the go-to gathering for marketers working in the manufacturing, engineering and industrial sectors. Built by Gorilla 76 and TREW Marketing, IMS delivers strategic insight, hands-on learning and true community.

Whether you’re a team of one, or leading a scaled marketing department, you’ll walk away ready to market smarter, lead stronger and impact your business. Make sure to use the code "happy hour" at checkout for $100 off...

Industrial robots on a factory floor can be difficult, to say the least. Industrial robots on a concert stage, in front of 20,000 people, on a two-minute setup clock are a whole different challenge.
In this episode, we talk with Andy Flesser - computer animator turned “robot animator,” whose work has helped bring robotics into live entertainment and film - about what that kind of pressure does to how you think about automation. Why preparation starts way earlier than most teams realize. And why some of the best lessons for manufacturing come from places that don’t look like factories at all.
We also get into where Andy thinks robotics actually makes sense, where it probably doesn’t, and why the future of robots might be less about machines walking around and more about environments doing work around us.
If you’ve ever operated an automated system and felt that knot in your stomach when something didn’t behave the way you expected, you’ll recognize a lot of what he’s talking about here.
In this episode, find out:
How Andy went from animation into robotics, and why early robot programming felt more like deciphering a code than writing software
What it was like putting robots on tour with Bon Jovi, and why live entertainment turned out to be one of the toughest automation environments imaginable
Why a robot failing on a concert stage creates a very different kind of pressure than a robot failing behind factory walls
What really happens on a movie set when robotics are involved (including Black Adam), and why even “small” changes still need serious testing
Why Andy sees huge potential for robotics in medical applications, especially in areas most people don’t talk about
A take on the future of robotics that skips the humanoids and focuses on buildings, rooms, and systems doing the work instead
How entertainment can be a surprisingly effective way to pull people into robotics and automation careers

Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!
Tweetable Quotes:
“Every single show, every inch, every second of time is so expensive. When something goes wrong, it’s happening right in front of everybody.”
“All the research and development in the world doesn’t exist unless you actually have sales.”
“I think the future isn’t robots walking around your house. I think the house will be the robot and you’ll be inside of it.”

Links & mentions:
andyRobot / Robotic Arts – Andy’s website and studio, where industrial robots get repurposed for live shows, touring, and film
Robot Animator – The software Andy built to let...

In true Manufacturing Happy Hour style, we head back to Pittsburgh, PA to drink the region's most iconic beer - Iron City - in an iconic Pittsburgh manufacturing facility. We sit down with Alex Gonzalez, Plant Manager at Pittsburgh Brewing Company. Part of our Made Here Series with the Industrial Solutions Network.
Mentioned in this episode:
Industrial Marketing Summit 2026
The Industrial Marketing Summit is the go-to gathering for marketers working in the manufacturing, engineering and industrial sectors. Built by Gorilla 76 and TREW Marketing, IMS delivers strategic insight, hands-on learning and true community.

Whether you’re a team of one, or leading a scaled marketing department, you’ll walk away ready to market smarter, lead stronger and impact your business. Make sure to use the code "happy hour" at checkout for $100 off registration.
Industrial Marketing Summit 2026