Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
Good morning.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Good morning.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast, and. And I'm so excited that we get to talk today. I've been chasing you down for a year and a half now, almost two years. Welcome to the studio, Craig. Nath.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Yeah, great to be here.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Great to have you. And so I remember the first time I met you, there was a very early meeting after Mitre Brands acquired PGT Innovations, and someone said, you have a fan in here. And I was like, really?
And it was a whole bunch of the engineering and manufacturing team. And they said, yeah, this guy has listened to every single one of your podcasts.
I said, nuh.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: You know, it was a great tool to get a little bit of background on some of the folks that we'd be meeting through the acquisition. And so absolutely been a fan and listened to many, many episodes.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Nice. You drew the short straw on that one. Like, I guess I'll listen to them.
No, it's fun to be able to know that what we're doing helps other people, whether they're interested in becoming part of the company or just doing business with the company. So thank you for that.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: So we've been talking to various leaders throughout the organization and just trying to tie it back into the MITER acronym. So the M I T E R. And so M, obviously is for manufacturing, and that is your space. So before we talk about what you're currently doing and your range of responsibilities, I want to hear more about your background.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Sure. I actually started in the window and door industry 23 years ago after I finished college at the University of Arizona. Started off as a production supervisor for another major window and door manufacturing company and did various different positions through that organization and then actually left Windows and Doors to go make mattresses.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: And they say once you're in Windows and Doors, you can never get out. So I proved them right and came onto Milgard in 2018.
And so shortly after Milgard was acquired and we became part of Mitre Brands and been here since.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Nice. And so where do you live?
[00:02:23] Speaker B: I'm based out of our plant in Temecula in Southern California.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Nice. And so Southern California, Southern Florida. It's not too bad, right?
[00:02:30] Speaker B: No, there's certainly worse places in the world to be. And while I'm not a native Californian, I can't complain about living there.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Where did you grow up?
[00:02:38] Speaker B: So I'm Born in Nebraska, but really grew up in Arizona.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: All right, well, I'm an Iowa girl, so the Midwest is a good place to be from.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: All right, so tell me about what your current role and responsibilities are today.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah, so I get the great fortune of leading our manufacturing team. So all of our factories where we produce windows, doors and glass are really what I get to do and work with a talented team of individuals and leaders that try and delight our customers every single day. Single day, making finest windows, doors, and customers experiences.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Nice. And so how many facilities do you have under your scope?
[00:03:12] Speaker B: So it kind of depends what you call a facility, but I like to say it's 14 different campuses is kind of the way I think about it across the country.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Okay, so glass and all the window and door assembly plants.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Okay, so not extrusions.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Not extrusions. Not pultrusions.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Not poltrusions, not supply chain.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: Nope.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Not quality. That's all Jason Wolfgang, who is going to come in and do an episode with me someday. I'll chase him too.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: I guess you'll find out if he listens to the podcast now.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: I will. And so we've been integrated for just under two years now, which is hard to believe. How do you think it's going?
[00:03:50] Speaker B: I think it's going really well. You know, we had all had certain impressions coming into the acquisition of the caliber of the team that we'd be meeting and getting to work alongside with. And I think it succeeded everyone's expectations. There's just been some phenomenal leaders, phenomenal team members. That's really been the most exciting part is as much as hopefully we're helping, whether it's the Venice site or Western or Anlin, I think we've learned equally as much from the team and have become a much stronger company as a result of the two of us coming together.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I would agree. And I think part of that is that there was such a strong emphasis on the manufacturing side from MI and then really strong emphasis from sales and marketing from Milgard, and then just, you know, our side was obviously innovation and really having the Florida market nailed down. When you put all that together, it really makes for a wonderful combination. And I know that having a set of fresh eyes on everything is always helpful, right?
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: You and I were going to try to record when we were out in Tacoma most recently about a month ago, and I had packed up and was ready to move on to my next site when you arrived. So I do want to talk a little bit about the C700, because that's a whole thing. Right. So did you have your hands all over that?
[00:05:01] Speaker B: A little bit. You know, we're very excited about the C700 launch. First and most importantly, it's a phenomenal product. The design really, I think, checks a lot of boxes of what our customers have been asking for for years. We had a very dated fiberglass product that's been in the market for a long time and we know fiberglass and we're very excited now to have a product that I think competes really well in the space and checks a lot of boxes that our customers wanted. And then also super excited about the space that the team has created to manufacture that product. I think the vision was not only to have a well designed and beautiful product, but to have a beautiful manufacturing space and something that our team members would have a great experience in every day going to work. And I think the team really nailed it. It's a beautiful facility. There's some degrees of automation. And I think the key with automation is the areas that we can decrease lifting and safety hazard and make the positions more enjoyable for our team members is so key and I think the team's done a really phenomenal job of doing that. So
[00:06:01] Speaker A: we are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear Impact podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
Yeah, Mike Barton was my tour guide when we went out there and it was so impressive and to just understand a little bit more about just the depth of innovation that went on even within the Joseph machines.
And it wasn't a typical Joseph. It was above and beyond what they even normally do. So I was so impressed with that.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's been a great example of a wonderful partnership between our engineering teams and our manufacturing teams of, you know, deploying automation and new technology where it really has an impact for our team members.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Yeah, because that stuff gets heavy and they have massive sizes. I think I remember the picture windows like a six by ten or something. That's huge.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Windows keep getting bigger, that's for sure.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: Yes, they do. Is there anything else, manufacturing wise, that is on the horizon that we should be excited about?
[00:07:08] Speaker B: You know, there's always a lot of new things coming down the pipeline, a lot of things in the world of glass. So whether that's new technology to build existing spacer systems or a lot of new technology coming in with our Triton glass systems, there's quite a Bit of change that I think is going to continue for the next few years there. And there's also a lot of new and interesting things on the vinyl window manufacturing front, whether that's seamless welders or different technology, as you mentioned, to increase what we do on fabrication centers. There's quite a bit of that. But I think the key from my perspective, and I think the team's perspective on automation, is knowing that at the end of the day, machines don't build products. People build products, people maintain these machines, people select what's important. So we're trying to make sure that we're balanced in our approach and not falling into the fallacy that automation will solve our problems.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So seamless welding.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: What is that?
[00:08:00] Speaker B: We have actually a prototype product that we've been working on where we integrate a machine that essentially welds two profiles together and leaves a clean finished surface that doesn't require cleaning afterwards.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Oh, ho, ho, ho. That sounds exciting.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Yeah. A lot of potential applications in the future.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Nice. Yeah. Although it is really fun to watch the robotic cleaning head, Sahir. I do enjoy that. And that's always an impressive moment when we're doing customer tours.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Always a popular spot on the tour stops, for sure.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Yeah. My grandson was pretty impressed with that. You have robots? I said we do. He's six, so, you know, doesn't take much.
All right. So as the education team, I always love to hear what people are learning about, what is something interesting. And this could be personal, professional. What's something interesting that you're learning?
[00:08:48] Speaker B: You know, I've been trying to read a lot of books and listen to podcasts about AI, and by far, not an expert and still trying to wrap my head around things. But I think it's really interesting to kind of see in some industries similar to ours and industries very different, some of the potential applications for that technology. So been trying to digest that and understand what it might mean for Mitre and even for personal use. But that's been something interesting. I've been spending some time on.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I've been doing some webinars and things like that through, I think, LinkedIn learning. We have access to that.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: I learned a whole bunch about Excel shortcuts this week, and I was like, oh, this is amazing. I don't use it a lot, but I love that AI can do a lot of that heavy lifting for me.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: All right. And so one last question.
So the Mitre brand's DNA is such a beautiful group of statements, and I really see how that plays out in how we work together. I'm curious to hear which one of these, or maybe there's more than one. Which one resonates with you the most?
[00:09:51] Speaker B: I think right now it would be, we are never too proud to ask for help. I think that's so important with the broad reach and number of facilities that we have in our manufacturing world, that oftentimes when we have a team that's facing a challenge or looking to accomplish something, we've got another team maybe across the country that's gone through it, learned the hard lessons, and has a lot to lend to the conversation.
So I think that's so important for us to be humble, to make sure that we understand that it's not about solving it all ourselves. We have a large network of teams that can support each other and never being too proud to ask for help.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that one, too. That's awesome. All right, anything else?
[00:10:28] Speaker B: I don't think so.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: All right, well, we can check this off the list. This has been hanging around. This has been. Your name's been on my list for a long time. And, Jason, I'm coming for you. So just so you know, you're getting a call from me today.
And anyway, Craig, thank you so much for making the time to record. I know you're headed to Orlando, right? You're going to the IBS show.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: That'll be fun.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Enjoy that.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: All right, thanks for having me.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: All right, thanks for taking time. Have a good day.
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