Greg McHale interviews Hernan Ricaurte, President of Ricaurte Precision, on how he went from wanting nothing to do with his Dad’s shop to taking it over and growing it in a very competitive area (southern California) serving extremely competitive markets (aerospace, defense, and medical devices). Hernan also talks about the state of precision machining in general and why he doesn’t like the term “job shop”.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Learn why Hernan had no interest in working in his dad’s shop as a kid( 2:51)
- Hernan talks about the evolution of the machine shop from 7 years ago to where it is now (4:37)
- Learn about the culture at Ricaurte Precision and what part technology plays in it (6:23)
- Everyone wants to be with a winner – how transparency helps motivate employees (8:02)
- Greg asks Hernan how he made his Investment decisions (10:11)
- Greg and Hernan discuss how investments in technology influence hiring & onboarding (14:37)
- Hernan reflects on when he first joined NTMA and how he is giving back to the organization (18:36)
- Hernan explains why being called a “job shop” rubs him the wrong way (20:22)
- Greg digs into the biggest challenges of running an advanced manufacturing facility (23:24)
- Hernan offers a shortcut to his success by answering the classic “What do you know now that you wish you knew then” question. (27:20)
“There’s so much data, but how do you collect it efficiently and make good use of it? I think that’s definitely one area that I look back on and think, man, lost opportunities because we weren’t organizing the data well, so we weren’t able to plan as effectively as we should have”
—Hernan Ricaurte, President, Ricaurte Precision Inc.
Links Referenced:
- Hernan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hernan-ricaurte-rpi/
- Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ricaurte-precision-inc./
- Company website: https://www.ricaurteprecision.com/