Machine Shop Growth
The Machine Shop Growth Podcast gives a fresh perspective to help you grow your shop by focusing on 3 key factors - Sales, Marketing and Efficiency. For decades the machine shop industry was build on a “good-ol-boys” mentality and was full of great machinists and engineers that made great parts. What has been discovered is many of those amazing shops have plateaued or are starting to decline - because they didn’t put enough emphasis on getting more work and making more money with the work they had.
On this podcast you will hear first hand advice from machine owners and mangers how they are getting more work and how they are making more money. Now let’s Grow Your Shop!
Machine Shop Growth
Episode #17: You Don’t Need More Machines —Your OEE Is Telling You the Truth
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You don’t need more machines.
You need to stop wasting capacity.
In this episode, Kirk Phelps breaks down why most shops misdiagnose growth problems and how operations—not sales—ultimately decide profitability. We dive deep into OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and explain how availability, performance, and quality reveal hidden capacity, wasted margin, and smarter paths to growth.
Learn how to:
- See where capacity is leaking inside your shop
- Stop defaulting to “more people, more machines”
- Use OEE to guide smarter planning, budgeting, and reinvestment
- Grow your bottom line before chasing top-line revenue
If you’re tired of being busy without getting ahead—and want a shop that’s profitable, disciplined, and intentional—this episode is for you.
Subscribe to our new 2026 format:
✅ Sales & Marketing (1st & 3rd Tuesdays)
✅ Operations & Engineering (2nd & 4th Tuesdays)
✅ Bonus joint episodes on 5th Tuesdays
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