Greg McHale interviews Kylan Hastreiter, Vice President of Hastreiter Industries, located in Marshfield, WI. Kylan’s parents started the shop in the late 1980s in a hog shed with one Makino LeBlond lathe. Today, they specialize in complex parts for the aerospace industry and are a driving force in introducing young people in Wisconsin to manufacturing—even creating a makerspace for students at their facility.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Every kid has a machine shop in their basement, right? ( 5:11)
- Turning over the reins to the next generation & rebranding the business (8:13)
- Introducing kids to STEM as part of the long game to build up a local workforce and a thriving manufacturing industry (12:48)
- It’s fun to have the latest & greatest technology! (21:47)
- Building a culture that embraces change (24:55)
- Investments that had the biggest impact (27:08)
- Getting two machines for free (29:22)
- How Hastreiter Industries impacts Wisconsin’s cheese industry (31:46)
- Predictions for the next 7 years (33:58)
- Kylan answers the classic “What do you know now, that you wish you knew then” question. (37:14)
” A lot of companies in our area are in trouble right now, trying to find a workforce, but it’s going to be that much worse ten years from now, 15 years from now. We have to do something now. So, that we can solve, really, tomorrow’s challenge.”
“It’s good to have things like scholarships, but not every problem can be solved with just raw dollars. In the example at The Makerspace, it was higher education, partnered with K through 12, partnered with industry, partnered with the Chamber of Commerce. Every type of institution has inherent strengths, inherent weaknesses, and we just put all that together, and we made something happen”
—Kylan Hastreiters, Vice President, Hastreiter Industries
Links Referenced:
- Datanomix: https://datanomix.io/
- Hastreiter Industries: https://hastreiter.industries/
- Shiloh Bound: https://www.shilohbound.org/
- C2 Makerspace: https://www.c2makerspace.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084244807677
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/c2-makerspace/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c2makerspace_marshfield/
- mfgmavericks.com: https://mfgmavericks.com