Lime rickey, digital twins, and a quiet giant with Johnny Ferry

Johnny Ferry is President and CEO of the Utah Manufacturers Association. Manufacturing matters more in Utah than most people realize, and Johnny breaks down why. 

Manufacturing is the whole process, from R&D and supply chain to quality, maintenance, delivery, and the workforce behind it. Utah’s advanced manufacturing strengths show up in aerospace and defense, and stability and predictability shape decisions across the industry. AI is part of the discussion as well, including digital twins and using better data to reduce downtime.

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Off Script. On Record.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

American manufacturing is having a moment and not a quiet one. Tariffs are reshuffling the global supply chains. Restoring is suddenly a political priority in Washington, and every state in the country is trying to figure out what it means for them. But Utah doesn't have to figure it out from scratch. In fact, manufacturing is already 11% of our state GDP, bigger than most people would realize. And Utah isn't just making widgets, we're the epicenter of carbon, fiber, and composites manufacturing for the entire country. A legacy that traces all the way back to the space race and today includes some of the most sophisticated aerospace and defense production anywhere in the entire world. The industry employs more than 100,000 Utahs and pays wages nearly 40% above the state average. My guest today is the man leading the organization that represents all of it. He's got 25 years of homegrown Utah manufacturing experience. He just took over as president and CEO of the Utah Manufacturers Association, and he's thinking hard about what this moment means for our state. Coming up on Back Channel, we go off script and on record with Johnny Ferry. This is the Back Channel.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Back channel.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

You didn't hear this from me. Back channel.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

What channel is it on? Back channel. Off script on record.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Let me get my straw off. Johnny Ferry, thanks so much for taking some time to come hang out with us. I'm glad to be here. I want to talk about manufacturing because I'm really interested in Utah's manufacturing sector. But before we get there, I want to talk a little bit about you and make sure our audience gets to know you a little bit better. So with that in mind, what you've been in manufacturing not this isn't like, oh, suddenly I'm in charge of the Manufacturers Association. Like you have been in manufacturing for a long, long time. Basically your whole career, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 1:54

That's true. I uh right out of college, I I don't know what you again it comes down to what do we define as manufacturing. But for me, specifically, I think what most people define it as is one of those buildings that has steam coming out of the top of it. Like that's been 25 years of my life.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

And uh I started um after so I maybe even I'll step back again. It kind of prep prepared me. And people who get into the industry usually have some backstory that led them to, you know, their their opportunity. And for me, it was growing up in Boxhelder County, uh, a little place called West Corinne, which is out uh way way out west. Um my family are five generations of cattle farmers and ranchers. So my upbringing was uh work in the farm, ranching, and and uh we had hunting grounds, and uh it was it was a great operation, and it continues to be so. Um it's uh this is again, like I said, five generations of that. But I I learned how to work. I learned that uh the value of trying to figure things out yourself. It's true when it comes to that that uh that type of work. As I um I attended Boxhelder High School, and I'll uh go bees. It is. And I'll mention this because I'll shout out to my wife because I met my wife in seventh grade. All right, and she became the future of everything for me. Um growing up on the farm and and thinking that I was going to be a farmer and a rancher the rest of my life, she changed that. She her family um owns a company by the name of Honeyville. Honeyville Grain is uh, it's now this is the 75th anniversary of Honeyville Grain. Her great-grandfather started it. He was in Southern California when he started as uh and worked in the in the food industry. He had an opportunity during at the start of World War II, uh families of Japanese descent were being put into internment camps. And as an alternative program to that, um they were offered land grants in places, remote places like Idaho and um uh Colorado and Utah. In Boxhelder County. Boxhelder County. And so he helped, he literally got in the truck and helped drive families uh and and became a sponsor of these families to get them into these new locations. And on one of those journeys, he came, he went to Honeyville, Utah, which is in Boxhelder County, um, saw a milling operation there, and fell in love with it and purchased it. And so he started to uh develop and build a grain commodity business of selling grains into into different um different uh companies and mainly into Southern California. Um he hit it off big in the corn industry. Corn is uh is a not porn, corn.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Corn, yeah. We'll put a graphic on the screen.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

C-O-R-A-C-C-C-C-COR industry, which is the uh the number one ingredient in the Latino diet. So you can imagine how much corn product is going into Southern California. Uh today, Honeyville is the largest seller of corn product in Southern California, move about 200 million pounds of corn annually that we grow and produce out of cal out of uh Texas and Nebraska, ship it to Southern California, clean, process it, ship it into local tortilleries. And that was that continued to grow until I entered the scene because I I um after serving an uh LDS mission, I returned back, went to BYU, where my future wife was as well. We got married, and her grandfather offered me, not me, but he went to my grandparents and asked them if he could pull me away from the farm. And uh they said, please, please take him. And I was taken and and uh jumped into my first job in manufacturing. It was a production line supervisor, nighttime shift, uh running trail mix for the USDA. And I remembered it well because at the time we had a Z conveyor that would take the dried cranberries that went into this trail mix, up a conveyor, and they were dropping all over, and I had my hard hat, and they landed my hat onto the floor and onto the bottom of my shoes. And at night I'd have to go in and scrape them off. And uh that was my first job. I remember it, and I remember it well, and it served me well because it takes me back now, 25 years later, and then in the position where I am in decision making, I think back to that time that I spent in those late nights working hard and those people around me and how important they were to the process. Um, as I developed from there, I started to think about different ways that I could um you know improve our processes. It was brand new division for Honeyville. We had never done consumer packaged goods, and I was asked to kind of run with that, and that became you know my passion. And and what really connected was I I learned this, and so back to the defining what manufacturing, a definition of manufacturing. There is that moment of manufacturing that most people think of, and it it you can relate to it, whether you see it, how it's portrayed in the media or on in movies, of that production line where things are falling apart and uh products falling off, and it's a I love Lucy chocolate thing where they're trying to keep up with production. And that's true, there is always going to be that there the moment of manufacturing, and there'll be days like that. But what's really interesting is that to get to that moment, it is also part of the manufacturing process. So start from the very beginning. Think about how something is made. You have to be able to think it first. So the RD and the uh conceptual part of it that helps you to prepare for uh moving it to supply chain and quality and regulatory and all the steps that have to align scheduling. All of those steps that have to align so that at that moment of manufacturing, you have the employees ready to go, you have your workforce there, you have your maintenance, you have your parts, you have everything you need. Because the most important uh moment is that on-time in full, getting it out the door that we manufacturers live by. Then there's everything downstream. It's the delivery, it's the getting your product to the um to the end consumer. So it's the quality checks, the staging, the delivery, the freight itself. All of those are part of manufacturing. So when I when I when I think about manufacturing, and as we discuss this, we should be thinking of it not just in that that moment when something changes from one state to the other, which is the definition of manufacturing. But it is the whole process. And when you start thinking of it in those terms, you're like, oh my goodness, that is so many more people, so many more resources, so much more um involvement than just that single moment that makes that happen. But give credit to everybody from start to finish, up and down the line, those who make manufacturing happen. And uh it's just like we're we're hit, we're sitting here drinking a swig soda in food manufacturing. Think about all those ingredients that had to come together so that you could enjoy that sip of that swig drink and then get it delivered to the location wherever you purchase this, and then out the door uh at cold and and this and it has that same experience every time you eat it. So in thinking manufacturing, as we're discussing that today, think of the whole process. Think of what that means, and that's what I have learned over the past 25 years, is is what each how important each one of those steps are to um to be successful, to be profitable, um, or whatever measurements you might have when it comes to uh what what uh what what real manufacturing is.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

So that's that's kind of where I've been from.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

So it's interesting when you say, you know, you you sort of went farming to manufacturing, um, even though the manufacturing side was probably as close to the the agricultural industry as you can get in manufacturing. And at the same time, farming as you describe it, there's like a a process to that as well, where you're sort of taking raw materials, turning them into something, and then shipping them. So in a way it feels like you've been uh maybe uh if there's a spectrum there, you've been on both sides of the spectrum of manufacturing, but also in highly related areas. Have you thought about it that way where it's like, oh geez, this was all very similar.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Every time I eat a hamburger, I think of it because my family was, it was, it was not just the farming, but it was the beef. So we would grow the food that would feed the beef that became our cheeseburgers. Uh that is, so yes, every time I get a moment, I think how the scene, the whole process all the way through, we just we think about that moment we're eating that cheeseburger, but the reality of it is to manufacture and get it to that moment so that all those components come together. Uh, yeah, that's been I really that's kind of been my life, that's what it is. And um as we as you take advantage or take opportunity to for those moments, then you start to realize, you know, this is something bigger, and um, and when you start putting it on a state level, so put some boundary to it. The Utah Manufacturing Association, that part of it came about when I um so as as we were as as Honeyville was growing, uh we had several different brands that we started to develop for. And um uh one of the earliest brands that we worked with was the Kodiak uh pancakes. And uh I had I remember some very, very uh first um interactions and business bills that we did with them, um, product product development and everything else. Uh I remember being part when Costco came knocking at the door. I was giving a tour to Costco, and they asked me, they they saw the box of Kodiak cake coming off the line, and they asked me, What's that? That's a Kodiak cake. Would you like to know more? You know, those kind of experiences and moments that connected, watching those brands build, watching how they came together, um, just kind of helped me and my background of understanding how it all works and came together, and then seeing the importance of marketing, the importance of product development, and then the importance of promotion and getting the name out there, getting the people out there to see and try your product. Uh as we were with Costco, you got the, you know, you got roadshows, you got the tasting to go on that we all love. All of that is uh again, it falls back in making sure that Costco can't sell anything if they don't have product on their shelf. Um, and so we had to make sure that we got things delivered on time and full. Um, all of that was an interesting part of what we're so when I think about the develop the process, I think about all of those things.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

You can tell just from talking to you that you're you're really passionate about manufacturing. What is it that you love? Like what is it that you love most about it?

SPEAKER_00 11:31

I love the I love that it creates. It creates from the very beginning. It starts off with ideas. So you can this is where let me just give a shout out to how AI is going to continue to impact manufacturing. Manufacturing requires thought. You have to, because many times uh manufacturing leads to an investment. So before you invest, you're very cautious and careful with those resources. And that resource means then you need to know and get as much information as you can to be able to put up to put an idea together that becomes the next big thing. And so um as I as I think about the that process, um all of it requires just you know this the creation side. So it is going from an idea to a concept to a finished good and to a satisfied customer. And that's what I've lived by. That really has been successful where I found success is following that process.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

So you find some satisfaction in like the completion of the process and at the end of the day or the end of that process, you have something tangible.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Oh, I I think about this too. Um, back a farm analogy here. That my dad used to always talk about getting water to the end of the row. You've heard the analogy, literally, in farming, when we would set those corn rows up and we would have, you know, watering all the way down. If you shut that water off too soon, especially on that first watering, that whole end of the field is gonna die. It doesn't get to the end, and you lose out on all of that uh product that you could have produced. But that's definitely something that I think about that getting all from start to finish, and then you know, there's nothing like the satisfaction at the end of the day of watching what you've created, um, have it have to see what it did, you know, the the end result. And uh and I I seem to get that in manufacturing, and many people get that over and over again, and that's why they're in it.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Uh give us just an overview of what the manufacturing sector looks like in Utah. It's it's bigger than I think most people would think. In Utah you might say uh it's agriculture, um, uh you know, it could be defense, and and some of those things have some overlap, uh, as we've talked about. But give us just an overview of like what does the manufacturing sector look like in Utah?

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah, that's a great question. Thinking about because going back to what we were defining manufacturing, if you think about all of the processes that it takes and you define your manufacturer, so defining what manufacturing is and you say, okay, let's dive in further. There's three parts that really impact manufacturing. One is those direct manufacturers. So you actually make something, you're a primary manufacturer, you live for that moment of manufacturing, but then think about well, just let's just comment on that. In the state of Utah, so we have to register with the federal government. Well, we don't, everyone does. You register your business with the federal government, and then you give what's called an NAICS code, a code that defines what kind of manufacturer that you are. In uh manufacturing, we've got codes 31, 32, and 33. And those codes uh define all of these inner industries, and that can be anything that makes something. So it can be jewelry manufacturing, it can be pet food manufacturing, food manufacturing, it can be cabinet making. I mean anything that is classified, your main thing that you do is manufacturing, is under one of those codes. In the state of Utah, we have over 5,000 registered um manufacturers that are tied to those codes. So we know and we can see that there is businesses of anywhere, and then they classify them by number of employees, anywhere from one to five, one uh five to ten, it goes up, you know, it just scales up from there, up to tens of thousands. And so when you look at those, uh when you start to look at it that way, oh you got um you you're starting to in that's where you start to see. Remember, that's just to identify what kind of business you are. Then take all those that serve manufacturers, all the businesses that serve manufacturers. And a best way to kind of put that is to think of it this way if I'm a small and building business, a mid-size, small and mid-sized business, um, I may not need in-house uh accounting, I may not need in-house marketing, I may not need in-house you know, specific uh uh services. So I go to third party. I hire them out, and as I grow my business, maybe I pull that in-house at some point. But there are the tr the most uh most of the businesses out there utilize some type of a service provider. And so by classifying those codes, you can then get to see how big of an impact they are. There's over 85,000 registered service providers, two manufacturers that sell some service in some way in the state of Utah. Uh and so with all that. Oh yeah, think of the ripple effects that go with that. One more category group is your peers. Um as you grow in manufacturing, you're impacting other industries for sure. Uh when you go look at the state and you see the number um uh where most employee, the number of uh industries that employ the most people. Number one is healthcare and services, number two is retail, and right there, right behind it, is manufacturing, number three. And then that impact and the impact on GDP in the state is tremendous. So we're kind of a quiet giant. People don't don't know us, they don't talk about it because we're the guys who pull up to the building, we put our hard hats on and our hairnets, and uh and we And you go inside a building that no one that nobody can see in. No, yeah, you don't see it, and the walls are all up, and you're like, oh, they're they're making things in there. Oh, steam coming out of the top. It looks like we don't realize how impactful that truly is here in the state.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

And so when I think about uh the impact that that manufacturing has, I think of it in those terms. Uh those are everyday people. I remember my the founder, the one of the president of our company used to say, You pull me to the window and say, look out in that parking lot, look at all those cars. Every one of those represents a family, and every one of those families represents a neighborhood. And so our impact in making sure that they're here, they're safe, that they're paid well is is going to impact how we live and our communities and our state. So I I think I think manufacturing has a bigger role to play, and uh, but we do it quietly, and uh my job is to get it out there, let people know, and promote it.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Uh when I think of manufacturing, and I think uh as more of sort of an everyday Joe who doesn't do the manufacturing um sector all the time, yeah, I would think uh folding tables and chairs, kayaks, basketball hoops, right? That's sort of almost one company. His lifetime, yeah. Yeah. Uh I would think of medical devices. Yeah. And then I would think of aerospace. So I'd love to just kind of walk through some of those. Are those is that a fairly decent representation of a way to say like stuff that people use? Consume. So let's say throw food in there. Yeah, okay. So those are those are sort of like not a not a comprehensive way to look at it, but broad categories. So tell me about the the aerospace. This is one that like it feels like for the past five to ten years, we've been hearing so much about we want to be big in advanced, um advanced manufacturing, aerospace manufacturing, composites is a word you hear a lot. Um how big is that in Utah? And is it sort of the one that's got all this potential to continue to grow because it's sort of when you type put the word advanced into it, it's like, well, it's advanced, it means it's only gonna get more and more advanced as we go.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Yeah, um great, uh, great uh way to kind of look at this too, and and shout out to all of those industries. Aerospace and defense has a very specific niche here in Utah. A lot of it's driven because of Hill Air Force Base. But we also have a lot of innovators, innovation that touches well into that space. And it's kind of like if you think about it, look back the history of that, of how it's kind of fed itself, that as ideas have been created, usually there needs to be money behind it to create some of those bigger projects. And that's where government steps in, and then you get aerospace and defense that allows, you know, that industry and the big players here in the state of Utah to build the things that they do. Um, it's also fun and exciting. It's it's um, you know, we didn't our generation before us experienced like building a rocket to the moon. We're now building cars that will fly. Much more of a space shuttle age. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Just to clarify, space shuttle You may have been around for the moon landing.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

I don't know. But yes, uh when I think about the that that is the kind of new and exciting thing. Uh the idea of drones, the idea of you know automation and robotics.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Like Well and the aerospace has had sort of a resurgence, right, with the Artemis mission, and now it's like it used to sort of be NASA, and now it's NASA and it's SpaceX and it's Blue Origin and all these that seem to have a younger generation a little more thinking about this than than even like my generation did, that was maybe sandwiched in between the moon missions and you know these these new moon missions.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Yeah, I I was uh yesterday we went to an event that was held by Union Pacific Railroad and um NASA and it was and Northrop Grumman. And the two of them were came together because Corinne, and they were out in Corinne, my hometown, and uh they brought the two together because it was all about they they were uh they were introducing a new train, which was the Donald Trump train, and then they had um the rockets that they that that uh Northrop Grumman had built out of Thycol, and they were you know saying, hey, these rockets built in Utah are now gonna go on this train and it's gonna take it for the 250th anniversary. These are parts for the Artemis program. We're sending these to Florida to get assembled, but they were things that were built right here in Utah. How exciting is that? Yeah. As a kid growing up, I remember seeing those rocket um the tests that they do. All of a sudden we'd be out, you know, working in the field and all of a sudden the ground starts shaking and we're like, nope, not an earthquake. Then we look over and we see a great big cloud of smoke coming out of Thycol's direction because they were testing the rockets that would, you know, send people to the moon uh and up and and and satellites up into space. And even like the solid rocket boosters, right, from the space shuttle were out there, if I remember right. Yeah, that's right. And so it's you know, just just that kind of think of uh Utah is we were, you know, they the our our forefathers came out here to be remote and and get away from everybody. That also led to the ability for us to kind of be remote and do our own thing, where we have these incredible aerospace and defense companies that can they have the space to do the things that they need to for safety, but also just uh for for uh privacy and protection and think everything that goes with that too. But the um, you know, we have now we have generated innovators who have come up through and grown up through that in these big different companies here in Utah. And and they can be small ones. They don't have the just the big names, these are the small ones that feed the big ones, and and it all kind of synergizes together at Hill Air Force Base. We're pretty lucky to be where we are when it comes to that that uh that arena. What's the biggest challenge Utah manufacturers face today? Um one one of the I I would say the pro the most common thing I asked the same question of both members and manufacturers. Throughout the state. Instability. It's the idea that because manufacturers, again, we're very rigid in how we do things, just like a machine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Businesses like predictability, I imagine manufacturers like predictability the most.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Exactly. Because we we have, you know, we have our we have our goals, we have our deadlines, we have these things that we have to meet. So that discipline of getting something done on time and full out the door is how we live. It's how we're measured, it's how we're successful. We we measure our own success that way. Anytime you throw in something that changes that that uh you know the equation, then you're throwing people, you're throwing a wrench into this discipline. And so for manufacturers, they need that. Uh things like um the tariffs that we don't know where they're gonna land, that in a way that was meant to help manufacturers, but because of the inconsistencies there, that caused a lot of problem in the supply chain. Um you know, so there was some great neat, I mean there were some great things that were attempted to try and bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and uh and to do more of that. But what's caused because of the tariffs effect, then just that that unknown, that uncertainty.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

And to an extent, I imagine like it there are tariffs and then there are different level tariffs, and then there's a court saying no tariffs, and now we're back to this, and the the back and forth of that is what causes as much problem as anything. Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

And and think about also the input of energy, gas and and oil, and in things that drive our machines, the energies that drive our equipment, we're very much impacted by the uh ebb and flow of that. So as energy's prices spike, manufacturers who are used to the consistency see that. We try to then have to, we're the start of having to pass that on to the customer and figure out a way, or how are we going to eat that cost? And so you take away the consistency, and that's the biggest challenge that manufacturing faces right now. Um, as I would, and I hear that over and over again.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

What about workforce? Are are we seen as a place that we got a lot of young people? Or traditionally we've had we have fewer young people than we used to have, but we still have probably more than most places in the country. An advantage, a disadvantage, something we're obviously very focused on.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Yeah, I would uh, you know, for for us, it definitely that's I would say that's probably the number two is that workforce. And then also it's not just the workforce having a body, it's having, you know, the intelligence that goes with that body about how to operate the equipment, the machines, but not just that moment of manufacturing. Remember, we need all of those people to do all those other jobs that make that moment happen. So for us, when we think about the workforce, it's developing all, everybody. So your accountants, um, your your RD people, supply chain people, like all of them are just as important as those that operate the equipment. The quality, the maintenance people, like all of those people are so important to making that moment happen. And that's why I always go back to that is we're not just manufacturing, we're all of the above, because uh if one of those goes down, or we don't have top-level talent that's uh you know doing their jobs, we we lose out, we miss out on that discipline as as we get to that moment of manufacturing.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

What do you look at then? Uh you know, when we talk about challenges, what about biggest opportunities? What do you look at and say this is why we're positioned to really go launch from here?

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Yeah, I I would say that uh specifically for manufacturing in the state of Utah, um, our opportunity, we we have a very strong foundation and we're already top game. We're already top. And but and sometimes when you get to the top, it's a little bit wobbly because you got there for, you know, maybe you have some energy burst and you're there. We're not that. We are that slow growth, that slow grow, slow build, that discipline that got us to where we are. I don't see that going away. I see that, you know, probably the biggest threat to the workforce is cost of living. Cost of living is a challenge for, and and that's that's all around for all workers and that whole process that they go through. Um but yeah, that cost of living is gonna be a challenge for our work. If we can't, if we can't get to where we can keep and retain talent in our state, we're gonna lose it. That that's probably the biggest threat that we have going against us right now, is um is having that having uh good people leave because they can't afford to be here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Tell me about your professional transition from uh Honeyville, where you were working in manufacturing, and now suddenly it's like, all right, now be to a certain extent responsible for the for the uh continued march forward of the manufacturing sector in our state. Clearly, like I said, you're very passionate about it, but uh how has that transition been from like I get to focus on this company and what we're doing to all of the manufacturing?

SPEAKER_00 26:27

So incredible. Like the uh all my dreams coming true, right? It is uh something where I had a passion and I I helped to create something, and then I get to now go out and and see others who have done the same. But more if there's any way that I can take what I've learned and impart it to others and help um in their in those processes, um we we exist, the manufacturing association exists simply to provide a value to its members. We're nonprofit, we're not out there trying to sell some product, but the way that we do that is, and and this is taken, so I've now been in seat about uh just over six months, and for me, the way that I look at the world going the in this space uh for an association, what does it what value does it why would why would somebody want to be a member of an association? It's got to bring a value, and that value comes in um in five areas. We offer benefits, so take the combined voice of all manufacturers, what can you do with that? Well, you can combine your you pull together your benefits, um, you can offer trainings that everybody needs, you have advocacy up at the state legislature for regulatory issues and other things that that you you know you provide for the members. Um, you have networking, so events and ways to connect and bring people together, ideas together, and then you bring services, the fifth one services to manufacturers as they need them. By taking that approach and identifying that, I can see like that that has that has benefited our company, but then as it benefits the manufacturers, that it just becomes a natural fit for the position and uh what I've learned in just this few time, this little bit of time that I've been involved with the manufacturing association.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Do you approach it a little bit like the same process you used at at Honeyville to say, okay, here's what we've got, we know the output we want, this is our raw material, how do we go manufacture it? What what from your background has like helped you most in this new type of role?

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah, that's it's exactly what we're structuring with the manufacturing association right now. I look at this and I say, okay, what is the flow process that the members get the experience, so manufacturers get their experience all the way through. It really does start with awareness, which is the marketing piece, awareness of what programs are available, uh, awareness of ways that we can help as a combined group, as it manufacturers each other. So there's the marketing piece. Marketing moves to business development. That means we've got to go out and connect. We've got to we've got to hunt down and find those that want to be a part of the manufacturing association. Then that leads to uh once they become converted, then it's the account management and it's taking care of those accounts, giving them every opportunity to participate in all of the offering that the UMA has, and providing customer service. So uh those offerings, again, the benefits, trainings, the the uh advocacy and the networking, plus the service, all of that is then the responsibility of the account managers who work with the manufacturers. So I followed that process is just a mirror image of what I did as a manufacturer is you know, going from marketing and promoting the product, going out and hunting the sales, uh converting those sales and then keeping them happy. Um that whole process continues with the association, and I think that helps speak the language to the the members and future members, those that want to join or be a part of us, uh, because they speak that. That's what they do, that's how they live their life, and I think it it helps us in um connecting, speaking the language for sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

We've talked a little bit about where manufacturing uh is in our state economy and our overall picture right now. Where do you want it to be in five years?

SPEAKER_00 29:51

So the the uh Department of Workforce Services puts out a a chart that basically predicts the next 10 years where where are we gonna be. And if you look at where manufacturing is, we continue to see tremendous growth in our area, and that's exciting. So I would I would mirror that and and not just not just by what the statistics are telling us, but also what I'm seeing in the eyes of the manufacturers. They're saying we're gonna get there, and and you have some incredible leaders that are based here in the state of Utah who are leading their companies, and I believe in them. When I see them and I see what kind of products they're putting out, and they say we're gonna get there, I believe they're gonna get there. So I see as a goal for us is to support them in that process of getting them to their goals. I see nothing but upside to the manufacturing space here in the state of Utah.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

You did touch a little bit earlier on AI and its impact. And I wanted to talk not only about AI, but AI plus, say, robotics automation. How does that play into manufacturing in our state right now and and how does that impact the industry going forward?

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Yeah, great question. I I've uh wrestled with this one because when you first think of AI, you're thinking, oh, I'm gonna use it to help me make my PowerPoint. I'm gonna use it to help me write my emails or do my you know data research. Yes, that's all part of it because again, manufacturing touches so many places, AI can be applied there. But let's talk specifically to the manufacturing moment. Where, how can AI help me produce a product better on time infull? The first thing you look at is to get to that moment, you had to create the environment for it to happen. What I mean by that is you needed the production line, you needed the equipment, you needed to think through the bill that you were going to make this production line. Uh in my experience, Honeyville had several you know production lines. And when we didn't have AI back in the day, I would have to go out and research that or get somebody to do that for me. But now you can instantly create a digital twin, a digital, like a uh you can create it digitally before you can you know actually have to invest in it. And because of AI, suddenly I have so many options on the table to think about. And it just processes all of those what ifs so much better than um we've ever been able to do. And that applies in manufacturing. I'm about to invest three million dollars into a production line. I better I I want to make sure that I make the right decision here. So I live off of the mistakes of the past, which can be gathered by AI, and they can tell me, hey, here are the pluses and minuses of this particular project. So I see AI being instrumental in helping us to create and set up those production. Once you get into it, AI, the heart of AI, gets into automation and robotics, and that's the future of manufacturing. So AI, programming, data management, after you produce the product, the data sets that you get that tells you you produced this line, this much, and as you gather that, AI can quickly tell you, oh, here is your problem spots, right? This machine has been down 10 minutes consistently for the past four days. Why? What's the problem? And AI can help to get you to that a lot quicker than you can sit and go through reports over and over and over and try and find that. I can see AI being instrumental in helping us be more efficient that way, too.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

Really interesting stuff. We're almost out of time, so I want to finish up with our lightning round. And this is less about manufacturing and more about Johnny Ferry. All right, let's hear it. All right, so these are just some things to help us get to know you a little bit better. We should start with what did you go with for your soda today? I went with a lime Ricky. Lime Ricky.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Okay, that's like that that seems like it's your go-to. Yeah, Brigham City has a Pete City, which is a restaurant up there. Yeah. Uh I used to go get myself a lime Ricky, and uh and if you want a little kick to it, they call it a kick and Ricky and it makes it with Mountain Dew.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

That's not this.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

So we've figured out your favorite drink. Let's go with this. Favorite food.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

What are you ordering when uh calories don't count? Chinese. Uh I served a mission in Toronto, Canada, Chinese speaking. And I'm not talking Panda Express. I'm talking give me the real stuff. Yeah. And uh I spent actually I spent about a year of my life in Hong Kong. Give me the real stuff. Where do you get the real stuff in Utah? Ah, that's the tricky part.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Oh, you want to keep it a secret? Ah, that's fair enough. You don't want to have it overrun with more people. No, there's some great places though.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

Uh what's your favorite uh sport or hobby? Uh my kids started playing lacrosse. I had no idea what it was when I was growing up, but I started watching them play lacrosse, and they my boys played all through high school. That has become one of my favorite sports. Okay. Uh what profession other than your own would you most want to try? I would love to teach. I would uh put me in front of a classroom of college students and help there's so much potential they have. I would love an opportunity to get up there and help them um to develop their ideas, help them live their dreams.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

I like that you specify college and you don't want seventh graders to come in.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

My wife is a second grade teacher. Okay. So she's got that covered.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

All right, she's in at the elementary, but nobody wants the junior high for some reason. Those are the people who are real saints. Uh what profession other than your own would you most not want to try? Would you say I just never want to do that?

SPEAKER_00 34:38

Oh man, when I look at uh I uh I'll go back to um I'll go back to my wife in teaching. Uh she comes home and tells me everything that she goes through during the day, and bless her for what she does. I don't think I'd want to be in that age. That's just not me. I couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Uh give us a recommendation, something you're enjoying right now, a book, a podcast, a movie, something that uh that right now you're saying people should be watching this or consuming it in some way.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Yeah. Um I have found, so I have uh I do a lot of organ organizing and organization. If you um I have found it useful for me with when it comes to my family history and everything else that goes. I have found some uh Adobe has a great suite of tools that you can go in. I've actually gone in and found some old videos, old things that I have and started to cut them down to preserve the posterity. I encourage anybody to go and try and do that. It really helps you to appreciate where you came from.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Yeah, now you can add this interview to your family history, why not? Um all right, last one. Uh what's the best piece of advice that you would give a younger version of Johnny Ferry?

SPEAKER_00 35:39

I would say uh keep just keep at it. When you're standing out there, I remember when those uh those late nights of working hard on those production lines and thinking, what am I doing? Um I would tell them just keep at it. It's gonna be okay. Uh opportunities will come your way. Um do what's right, make good choices, and uh and you'll be blessed. And I have been and tremendously. And getting to know and given opportunities to to work with good people have have been the blessing of my life for sure. Uh it's helped me and it's helped my family, helped me be a better father and it and uh you know, hopefully a better uh co-worker with those that I work with.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

No, I don't think the manufacturers in this state could have a better champion. So Johnny, thanks so much for spending some time.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

No, I appreciate I could do that. It's been great.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Backchannel is a northbound strategy production, and as a reminder, you can subscribe to the audio version of our show wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok as at Backchannel Utah, and we now have video on Apple Podcasts as well. Before we close today, I want to take a moment for something that's a little outside of our normal format, but still feels appropriate and important. You may have seen the news this week that Karen Hayde Huntsman passed away. She was 88 years old. Now, if you live in Utah, the Huntsman name is woven into the fabric of this state in ways that are easy to take for granted. She and her husband, the late John Sr., helped establish the Huntsman Cancer Institute in 1995 with a commitment of $100 million at the time, and one that has since grown into one of the most consequential philanthropic legacies in American history. The family has contributed or inspired more than a billion dollars toward cancer research, and it's safe to say there are Utah's alive today because of what the Huntsmans have built. But I think what strikes me most, and what I heard from people who knew her well, is that she was never just a name on the building. She was the heart of it. Her son, former Governor John Huntsman, described her as the chief operating officer of the noise and chaos of their family. And it's a big family. So that tells you something. Behind one of Utah's great public legacies was a woman doing the quiet, essential work that not only holds everything together, it drives things forward. Now I had the privilege of working with Governor Huntsman on his 2020 campaign for governor. I met Karen Huntsman only once while we were shooting campaign commercials in her home. It was a brief interaction, but she was exactly everything I'd heard she was: gracious, warm, present, one of those people who makes you feel in just a few minutes like you've known her longer than you actually have. So from all of us at the Back Channel podcast and at Northbound Strategy to the Huntsman family, you're in our thoughts and our prayers as you commemorate her remarkable life. We'll be back with another episode next week.