0:00

Hi, everyone. We've

0:00

set up this being an engineer

0:03

podcast as an industry knowledge

0:03

repository, if you will, we hope

0:08

it'll be a tool where engineers

0:08

can learn about and connect with

0:10

other companies, technologies,

0:10

people, resources and

0:13

opportunities. So make some

0:13

connections and enjoy the show.

0:18

And she was

0:18

cursed, most upset, and there

0:22

was no place in this small town

0:22

that you could get anything like

0:25

that repaired fact they had no

0:25

idea what they were. And so she

0:29

made the statement, and she

0:29

said, if someone could fix this,

0:35

I give them the best kiss they'd

0:35

ever had.

0:37

Hello, and welcome

0:37

to the being an engineer

0:54

Podcast. Today we're talking

0:54

with Stan Bentley, whose

0:58

background includes a mix of

0:58

electronic design and

1:01

manufacturing. Stan started

1:01

diversified systems in his

1:05

garage back in 1972. After

1:05

graduating with a W degree and

1:09

grit to nearly 700 people doing

1:09

electronic design, PCB

1:14

fabrication and assembly. In

1:14

2010. Stan started DIVSYS doing

1:20

similar activities, but without

1:20

the heavy manufacturing and

1:23

eventually sold that business in

1:23

2018. Recently, Stan started his

1:28

third company DIVaero.

1:28

Hopefully, I'm pronouncing that

1:31

correctly, focusing solely on

1:31

ITAR electronics. Stan, welcome

1:36

to the show. And thank you so

1:36

much for joining me today.

1:39

Well, thank you for having me.

1:41

All right. To get

1:41

things started off, I'm going to

1:44

throw you a softball question.

1:44

What made you decide to become

1:48

an engineer?

1:52

That may be less

1:52

less of a softball, the I

1:57

actually first got into

1:57

electronics, and then decided

2:02

that engineering was the way to

2:02

pursue electronics. And that's a

2:07

funny shaggy dog story that I

2:07

don't often tell but they, I was

2:13

in the seventh grade. And I grew

2:13

up in a rural area of

2:19

southeastern Kentucky and the

2:19

coalfields, the Appalachian

2:22

Mountains. And so as you can

2:22

imagine, we were pretty isolated

2:27

from about everything. And in

2:27

that time period, the first

2:31

transistor radios handheld

2:31

transistor radios came out. So

2:35

that's how far back I go in this

2:35

industry. And these early little

2:39

handheld devices were crude poor

2:39

am only. And it took a they

2:45

didn't even have a speaker that

2:45

first would you actually use the

2:48

little earphone earlier, but

2:48

they and the I had just started

2:56

to notice that girls were

2:56

different.

3:04

The what was the prettiest girl

3:04

in our class in school, I think

3:10

was also one of the wealthiest

3:10

had, she got one of these

3:16

transistor radios. And of

3:16

course, we all knew it, who did

3:19

odd about this thing. And so she

3:19

was in a group one day with this

3:23

passing the earphone around and

3:23

it stopped working. And she was

3:28

cursed, most upset. And there

3:28

was no place in this small town

3:32

that you could get anything like

3:32

that repaired fact, they had no

3:36

idea what they were. And so she

3:36

made the statement. And she

3:40

said, if someone could fix this,

3:40

I give them the best kiss they'd

3:45

ever.

3:48

That was all the motivation you needed.

3:51

No clue how this

3:51

thing worked or anything else.

3:56

But I thought this is something

3:56

I have to drive around and said,

4:03

I'll fix it.

4:06

And how did that turn out?

4:09

It actually

4:09

worked. I took this thing home.

4:11

And they turned out that I

4:11

didn't even know this. My father

4:16

was an electronics instructor

4:16

was an officer in the Navy. And

4:21

consequently in our base, there

4:21

were some things he had brought

4:24

back one of which was a

4:24

soldering iron. And he gave me a

4:28

quick crash course in this this

4:28

thing. So I was I started trying

4:32

to take this radio apart I

4:32

discovered that the A would

4:35

actually that the earphone the

4:35

plug piece had a poor solder

4:40

joint and it come loose and that

4:40

if I touch that wire back to the

4:46

solder connection, the thing

4:46

played and so I learned very

4:50

quickly how to solder did what

4:50

was probably today an incredibly

4:54

crude, crude job of soldering

4:54

that screwed it all back

4:59

together it all played. So I

4:59

took it back and true to her

5:03

word. I handed her the radio and

5:03

I got my my first real kiss.

5:12

That's a wonderful

5:12

story. Thank you for sharing

5:14

that. Well, you started your

5:14

career as a designer and

5:20

eventually moved into

5:20

manufacturing what what

5:22

motivated you to make that

5:22

change?

5:25

Well, actually, it

5:25

really started in college, the I

5:30

was in graduate school, the

5:30

program that I was part of was

5:35

really funded through a NASA

5:35

grant that ultimately routed to

5:39

us. And in that we were building

5:39

a remotely piloted vehicle,

5:46

which was kind of interesting.

5:46

And it was really intended for

5:51

sending into hazardous

5:51

environments, particularly since

5:54

this was Kentucky, coal mining

5:54

accidents. And as part of that

5:59

design effort, we needed printed

5:59

circuit boards, and there would

6:05

go back to the 19 6970

6:05

timeframe, there was no way to

6:09

buy those. And so basically, I

6:09

had to figure out how to crudely

6:14

make PCBs and kitty litter pans,

6:14

so that we could create the

6:21

designs or implement the designs

6:21

we were working on. So I carried

6:25

that forward. When I left school

6:25

as a design engineer, had the

6:28

same problem again, I needed

6:28

PCBs, and couldn't buy onesie

6:33

twosie. And so I created another

6:33

small lab, making little more

6:37

sophisticated ones, because we

6:37

had a little more money, and

6:40

very quickly decided that would

6:40

be a business. And so I formed a

6:46

company in 72, to design

6:46

microprocessor based things and

6:52

make crude PCBs.

6:54

Now, the company

6:54

you were working at before you

6:57

started your own business, was

6:57

that Randsburg?

7:00

That's correct.

7:00

They are Randsburg is an

7:03

interesting company, that name

7:03

is still around the company and

7:08

what they did lives on. They the

7:08

person who started that company

7:13

was a gentleman by the name of

7:13

Harold Greensburg, and who's

7:16

kind of a unique sort of

7:16

inventor even though he did not

7:19

have a technical background. And

7:19

what he did was he invented the

7:25

electrostatic painting process.

7:25

And by which everything today is

7:31

painted or powder coated, powder

7:31

coating, yeah, okay. And so that

7:36

process came out of this company

7:36

also. Amazing. So that was

7:41

really what was an interesting

7:41

story. I was really hired out of

7:45

graduate school, I had no

7:45

intention of I thought I would

7:48

stay to become a professor

7:48

because the life on the college

7:52

campus for a young guys not too

7:52

shabby. But this company, since

8:01

they had invented the process,

8:01

at the same time, the EPA was

8:05

created in this seven days, and

8:05

one of the very first industries

8:10

they they went after was the

8:10

really the automobile industry,

8:14

but more specifically painting.

8:14

Because anyone that was around

8:19

in that era, and that lived, for

8:19

example, let's say in Detroit,

8:24

you literally could walk across

8:24

the Detroit River. The paint

8:28

film on it was unbelievable, in

8:28

fact that the river in

8:31

Cleveland, Ohio, caught fire and

8:31

burned. And so the EPA was

8:38

looked was looking at the

8:38

painting industry, because they

8:40

were just the bottle tool was

8:40

just going up the stacks into

8:44

the air and the overspray was

8:44

just being dumped. I know that

8:49

today that seems like an

8:49

impossible thing. But this was

8:53

the situation and in 19 6970

8:53

timeframe. And so consequently,

9:00

a hand spray operation for

9:00

anyone that's ever used a spray

9:03

can and you know that most of it

9:03

goes everywhere, but where you

9:05

aimed it. And that's pretty much

9:05

the that was the case with the

9:09

painting industry. So for

9:09

example, an automobile, that

9:13

vintage had roughly a gallon of

9:13

fit of paint on it when they

9:18

left the factory, but they

9:18

sprayed five to get one on

9:22

there. That's staggering.

9:22

Unbelievable. The transfer

9:25

efficiencies were in the 25%

9:25

range. And so consequently, you

9:31

can see why they were producing

9:31

in this was the heyday of the

9:37

auto industry, about one car a

9:37

minute came off of those lines.

9:41

So it doesn't take too much like

9:41

too much. Math says look, if you

9:45

go to Ford, GM, Chrysler and so

9:45

on, you get a lot of paint film.

9:51

Well, the the crudest

9:51

electrostatic process would

9:55

generate almost 90% Or a little

9:55

better than 90% trends. We're

10:00

efficiency, we later huge, huge,

10:00

we got those numbers up to 95,

10:04

or 96. But the problem was, they

10:04

did this by charging the paint

10:10

to 100,000 volts DC. And so if

10:10

if you've ever had, most people

10:17

haven't had an electrostatic

10:17

Spark, you've got essentially a

10:21

charged atomizing device, that's

10:21

at 100,000 volts and you have a

10:25

grounded metal object. You don't

10:25

have to get too close before you

10:30

draw a lightning bolt. And if

10:30

you do that in a carburized

10:34

mixture of solvent and air, you

10:34

get a fire. So one hand we could

10:39

solve the EPA problem, but on

10:39

the other, we could burn a

10:43

factory. And so that was

10:43

essentially the the challenge

10:48

that I was given. And that's

10:48

what drew me out of graduate

10:52

school, instead of being a

10:52

professor was figuring out how

10:54

to make one of these things safe.

10:56

Interesting, well,

10:56

fun project for your first real

10:59

project out of school

11:01

big, I had no clue

11:01

how to do it.

11:05

Well, I think

11:05

this, what I read on your

11:10

LinkedIn pages talking about

11:10

this very time, you said that

11:15

having unlimited resources, and

11:15

being surrounded by incredibly

11:18

talented and motivated people,

11:18

is something few engineers ever

11:22

experience, yet you did

11:22

experience and that it built the

11:26

foundation for all of your

11:26

engineering accomplishments for

11:29

the next 40 years. Can you talk

11:29

a little bit about about that

11:33

time and you share, you know,

11:33

what you were able to learn and

11:36

accomplish with unlimited

11:36

resources and talented motivated

11:40

people.

11:41

But both of those

11:41

are a blessing that few

11:44

engineers really get,

11:44

particularly to have both. And

11:49

at that age, especially your

11:49

age, correct. And the this was

11:54

really the result of trying to

11:54

solve the problem of how to make

11:59

electrostatic systems safe. And

11:59

so the company was sitting here

12:04

faced with an opportunity that

12:04

was just unbelievable, if they

12:07

could solve this, this problem.

12:07

And they were very cash rich,

12:12

even though they were small,

12:12

they were a cash rich company,

12:15

because they had made very good

12:15

margins on the things they did.

12:21

And so consequently, they really

12:21

had a very short period to solve

12:25

it. And essentially, it said,

12:25

Just spend whatever you need to

12:29

spend and hire whomever you need

12:29

to hire. And so that allowed me

12:34

to relate to hire the cream of

12:34

the crop of the young tech

12:38

talent. And I did the same

12:38

thing. So it's no one knew how

12:42

to do this. There was no reason

12:42

to go look for experience, I

12:45

looked for smarts. And we had

12:45

the cash to experiment with this

12:51

to brainstorm the ideas. And

12:51

with that, it really taught me a

12:56

whole batch of things. One, I

12:56

got to dabble in a lot of

13:01

different industries, which

13:01

again, sadly, a lot of engineers

13:05

don't, we seem to get

13:05

pigeonholed. And we spend all of

13:09

our career doing something

13:09

that's a mile deep and an inch

13:12

wide. And in this particular

13:12

case, I had the opportunity to

13:17

look across a lot of

13:17

disciplines, and to work with

13:21

smart people in all of those

13:21

disciplines. And so we did in a

13:25

period of about two years, we

13:25

solved the problem, we came up

13:29

with systems that worked. And

13:29

basically the entire painting

13:35

industry adopted this technology

13:35

globally. And so that was to me

13:41

was was just an incredible

13:41

opportunity. And with that

13:45

that's what I leverage then for

13:45

the next 40 years of my career

13:49

was the the lesson learned was

13:49

surround yourself with the

13:53

smartest people you can find no

13:53

ideas, a bad idea. And sometimes

13:59

the most off the wall things are

13:59

the things that really can

14:03

develop into world class

14:03

products.

14:06

I can get a sense

14:06

of how seeing that actually work

14:13

would give you an incredible

14:13

amount of confidence that maybe

14:16

you wouldn't have otherwise. I

14:16

remember working on a project

14:20

several years back and it was

14:20

with an inventor. And he was not

14:25

an engineer, but he was a bright

14:25

guy. And we had tried a variety

14:29

of different things. Two, it was

14:29

a very mechanical solution here.

14:33

And none of them had really

14:33

worked and he came up with this

14:36

idea that was just so far out

14:36

there. And I thought there's no

14:38

way that's going to work. This

14:38

is crazy. You know, I'm the

14:41

engineer here this is not going

14:41

to work. What are we wasting our

14:44

time on this for? And lo and

14:44

behold, it worked. It was the

14:47

one that worked you know, it was

14:47

just this out there crazy idea.

14:51

And and it worked and and that

14:51

was just you know a relatively

14:55

small thing here you are one of

14:55

the pioneers of powder coating

14:58

for Good grief. You know A major

14:58

manufacturing process that's

15:01

used by WHO KNOWS hundreds of

15:01

1000s Millions of processes to

15:07

this date and having a success

15:07

like that I'm sure you were able

15:11

to ride on that experience for

15:11

Well, like you said, the next 40

15:15

years of your career?

15:17

That's correct. I,

15:17

the irony of it was that I

15:21

really didn't stay in that

15:21

industry. Once I formed my own

15:25

company, then it was really just

15:25

a variety of industries. Because

15:30

what we specialized in was

15:30

people would walk in with a

15:35

problem, yes, we made stuff, we

15:35

made printed circuit boards, we,

15:38

we put parts on boards, we

15:38

created product, but what we

15:42

really specialized in was

15:42

bringing in something that

15:46

wasn't working quite correctly

15:46

or didn't work at all. And

15:50

figuring out how to either in

15:50

some cases, just manufacture it

15:54

in other cases, fix it such that

15:54

it did the perform the

15:59

application that the inventor if

15:59

you will intended. So we weren't

16:04

really coming up with these

16:04

creative ideas as much as we

16:07

were helping someone win that

16:07

spark, figure out how to

16:11

implement it, and make the whole

16:11

thing work. And that is really

16:16

to me, what has been the fun of

16:16

an entire career is that you

16:19

don't know where the next

16:19

application is coming from. It

16:22

could be any field you can

16:22

imagine.

16:25

Yeah. Oh, how

16:25

great just solving fun, hard

16:28

problems. I mean, is there

16:28

anything better for an engineer

16:31

to do? That's really why we're here?

16:34

I don't think so.

16:34

All right. Well, every day.

16:39

Absolutely. Yep.

16:39

You started your first company,

16:43

diversified Systems, Inc, in

16:43

your garage, and eventually grew

16:48

to nearly 700 people what walked

16:48

us through that journey? What

16:53

How did that happen?

16:54

Well, the I for

16:54

really, for some time, I wanted

16:59

to actually start a company,

16:59

even as far back as the college

17:04

days. And so I by total chance,

17:04

met a an individual in a bar.

17:12

And he was the term that was the

17:12

chief engineer of a company. And

17:20

this company made, they

17:20

invented, I believe I'm correct

17:26

in this. I know, they made the

17:26

very first ones. And I think

17:29

they came up with the idea, the

17:29

first dollar bill changers. And

17:34

so he's sitting in basically

17:34

his, they created this, they put

17:39

them out on the market. And the

17:39

problem was, and the reason he

17:43

was in the bar drinking was that

17:43

someone had discovered with

17:48

these early dollar bill

17:48

changers, if they folded the

17:51

dollar bill in half and toric,

17:51

they could feed both halves into

17:55

the machine and get $2 and

17:55

change. And this was before the

18:02

internet, of course, by a long

18:02

shot, but it's amazing, just how

18:06

well the communication channels

18:06

were.

18:12

I believe it.

18:14

And so

18:14

consequently, what he was

18:16

looking for was someone to solve

18:16

that problem very quickly, and

18:22

make lots and lots of these

18:22

because they had 1000s of these

18:26

things. had been I'm assuming

18:26

1000s I know we made 1000s of

18:31

the fix. And so that's what I

18:31

said, Well, I think we can

18:35

figure this out. And so that's

18:35

literally what we did in the

18:38

garage was designed a very

18:38

simple little circuit to fix

18:42

this, and then made a whole

18:42

batch of that we needed to make

18:46

the circuit boards. So I lined

18:46

up a batch of much as I've done

18:51

in college, I can't let her

18:51

pants because the very first

18:56

polyol of our polyethylene

18:56

containers had come out

19:00

Rubbermaid had just hit the

19:00

market. And polyethylene works

19:04

out to be a fantastic thing for

19:04

chemicals. So the cheapest

19:08

polyethylene tanks I could buy

19:08

were at the pet store. And so I

19:12

gave you a letter payments, and

19:12

basically set up a line to make

19:18

the PCBs and then on a workbench

19:18

in my garage, I think corral

19:23

neighborhood help and my wife

19:23

and so on, and we taught them

19:28

how to solder and we soldered

19:28

these and we made 1000s of them

19:31

and ship them to actually hand

19:31

delivered them to this company.

19:36

And they installed these

19:36

everywhere into their dollar

19:40

bill machines to so that you $1

19:40

gave you $1 change.

19:44

That's awesome.

19:44

And how old were you at this

19:46

point? 2424 That must have been

19:46

so fun. I mean just working out

19:52

of your garage and you don't

19:52

have a big staff right your is

19:55

you and your wife and whoever

19:55

from the neighborhood you can

19:58

pull in and just make this

19:58

happen. What a great time that

20:01

must have been.

20:02

It was a whole lot

20:02

of fun. And so then we received

20:06

just word of mouth for extra,

20:06

because we knew nothing about

20:10

marketing sales or any of these

20:10

kinds of things. But there were,

20:15

it turns out a lot of companies

20:15

that had need of something like

20:19

that either PCBs or assembly.

20:19

And so very quickly, we needed

20:25

to, we needed more space. And so

20:25

we rented a small space and a an

20:32

office warehouse complex. But we

20:32

also needed equipment. And being

20:38

very, very new in the career and

20:38

not coming from wealth. There

20:41

was, there was no financing. And

20:41

so we needed money to buy the

20:47

stuff. And so we had a cute

20:47

little, kind of little off, it

20:53

was 1200 square feet, so it's

20:53

tiny. And so I started, I said,

20:59

Well, you need money, you go to

20:59

banks, I thought, I didn't know

21:03

that investors and venture

21:03

capital and all of these things

21:07

that you learned later in life.

21:07

So I started going to banks, and

21:11

with this idea of I needed to

21:11

borrow money. And it wasn't a

21:15

huge amount, but it was maybe

21:15

two or $300,000, which in 1973,

21:21

four timeframe was was a lot of

21:21

money. And so I went to the

21:28

major banks in town, and was

21:28

unceremoniously thrown out of

21:32

every one of them. Not even

21:32

nicely. And so I actually went

21:40

into a small town bank, and I

21:40

walked in, and um, you know,

21:44

I've gotten the big banks are

21:44

not going to work. And as I

21:47

walked in, off to my left, I saw

21:47

an office with a guy sitting

21:52

there and know that the placard

21:52

on the door, said, President, so

21:57

I said, Well, if I go to the

21:57

receptionist and asked to see

22:01

him, I know how that works. So I

22:01

just walked straight in his

22:04

office and sat down, said Hi

22:04

there. And Tony, what I wanted

22:10

to do. And he said, Well, I'll

22:10

tell you what he said. We're,

22:16

I'm intrigued about the

22:16

possibility of maybe investing

22:19

in a small company. Why don't I

22:19

bring some of our board members

22:24

and so on, and come see your

22:24

little company? Well, that's a

22:28

great idea, except there wasn't

22:28

much to see

22:31

the garage.

22:33

Well, we, yes,

22:33

everything was in the garage, we

22:36

had this this little this nice

22:36

space. So I go back and think

22:42

about this. How do we do a tour

22:42

fortunately, it was going to be

22:45

a week or so before they come.

22:45

So what I did, I went to all of

22:50

the neighbors, whose wives and

22:50

other folks had been kind of

22:53

coming in and helping solder

22:53

stuff. And we borrowed all kinds

22:58

of things from work tables, work

22:58

benches, we borrowed curtains,

23:03

we borrowed chairs, and decorate

23:03

this space. So it had a little

23:07

entry office area with a little

23:07

tiny desk. And then it opened

23:11

into this. Well, that would be

23:11

about 1000 square foot, kind of

23:17

just block wall factory. And we

23:17

set all of that up with

23:21

workbenches. And then we took a

23:21

set of parts because I didn't

23:26

have enough parts that we could

23:26

actually show a line running and

23:29

we have no employees. So on the

23:29

day that the tour was supposed

23:33

to happen, then the ladies of

23:33

the neighborhood, I don't

23:38

remember now how many it seems

23:38

like there was a lot but it

23:40

probably was maybe six or eight.

23:40

They got there early, and we set

23:45

up an assembly line. And so what

23:45

we would do, since we only had

23:49

one set of parts, these were

23:49

through hole in that that era.

23:53

So they would one group was

23:53

sitting there, they would put

23:58

the parts in the PCBs and then

23:58

they would pass them and each

24:00

person would add parts and so

24:00

on. They get to an inspector at

24:04

the end of the line when we

24:04

didn't solder them. So the

24:06

person at the end of the line

24:06

then was taking the parts back

24:09

out and putting them in advance

24:09

to the front of out of my world

24:25

basically this little factory,

24:30

and they bought it

24:30

they had no idea.

24:34

I don't even

24:34

remember how much but I think

24:37

around $100,000 Just on a

24:37

signature and no personal

24:42

guarantees none of the stuff

24:42

that I learned a whole lot about

24:45

later in life. And so we then

24:45

bought the equipment we actually

24:50

needed that on a more efficient

24:50

basis make PCBs and to assemble

24:59

this amazing I just kind of

24:59

built from there.

25:03

What a fantastic

25:03

story. Wow, that's one of the

25:05

better ones that I've heard.

25:05

Well, let's see, this is

25:11

probably a good good time to

25:11

take a short pause and share

25:14

with the listeners that Team

25:14

pipeline.us is where you can

25:18

learn more about how we help

25:18

medical device and other product

25:21

engineering or manufacturing

25:21

teams develop turnkey equipment,

25:25

custom fixtures and automated

25:25

machines to characterize,

25:28

inspect, assemble, manufacture,

25:28

and perform verification testing

25:32

on your devices. And we're

25:32

speaking with Stan Bentley today

25:36

who just has some really

25:36

wonderful stories. Going back to

25:41

DSI diversified systems, you had

25:41

written a little bit about the

25:46

culture there and back in that

25:46

day, correct me if I'm wrong,

25:50

but culture at a company was not

25:50

the buzzword that it is today.

25:54

Yet, it seems that you were very

25:54

proud of the culture that you

25:57

develop there. You talked about

25:57

a child daycare with

26:00

kindergarten, a variety of

26:00

educational courses, a 25 acre

26:05

beautiful campus, a Wellness

26:05

Center, and more. What What

26:09

effect did that culture have on

26:09

the daily lives of the people

26:13

who work there?

26:14

Well, it's, you

26:14

know, when you look back on all

26:18

of those things, and of course,

26:18

today, this is very much in

26:20

vogue. But if you look back on

26:20

it, I'd like to say that this

26:24

was a brilliant strategy that we

26:24

thought out. But the reality

26:29

was, these were things that

26:29

happened kind of incrementally

26:32

that worked very well, and all

26:32

of a sudden became well, gee,

26:36

that's obvious, why wouldn't you

26:36

do this, but they start with the

26:42

the campus itself, we we grew

26:42

very quickly during the 80s. And

26:47

we made very, very good money

26:47

because we could make printed

26:50

circuit boards that plated

26:50

through hole of multilayer when

26:53

very, very few shops in the USA,

26:53

other than huge mega shops could

26:58

do so. So we actually, which is

26:58

one of the interesting stories

27:03

that building a 25 acre campus,

27:03

actually was the building where

27:07

I first started to work for

27:07

Rensburg corporation. So in the

27:12

the early 90s, I actually

27:12

purchased the facility and the

27:17

land from the company where I

27:17

really started to work. And we

27:23

spent a year renovating that,

27:23

that building, and we just

27:27

gutted it and put everything

27:27

back back new. But then when we

27:32

get to the late 90s, as the

27:32

company is really, really

27:35

growing very rapidly, people

27:35

became a product, very much like

27:40

the situation exactly the

27:40

situation today, where you

27:44

literally cannot get the people

27:44

that you need, particularly if

27:50

you're looking at these early

27:50

employment, early young

27:55

professionals and so on. And my

27:55

wife actually came to me. And

28:01

she said, you know, you're

28:01

trying to hire these folks.

28:04

There's all kinds of reasons

28:04

why, you know, they can't come

28:07

to work and so on. And what you

28:07

want are these young

28:10

professionals, she said, if we

28:10

would create a daycare, then you

28:16

would be able to pull out of

28:16

pull into the market people that

28:22

for various childcare reasons,

28:22

can't come into the market. And

28:27

so I thought, let's give this a

28:27

try. And it turns out the

28:31

building happened to have about

28:31

a 12,000 square foot executive

28:36

office complex attached to it

28:36

through a breezeway that we

28:40

never occupied because the

28:40

offices were to swipe. As I told

28:47

all of my managers who all

28:47

coveted one of these because

28:50

they all had private bathrooms.

28:50

I said, you know, if customers

28:54

come to see us, and we're in

28:54

these kinds of digs, first thing

28:58

they're going to assume is

28:58

they're paying us too much. So

29:02

we never occupied this. And so

29:02

we went in and just renovated

29:06

this space, which wasn't

29:06

difficult, because it was a

29:09

series of large offices, and had

29:09

a huge open area in the middle.

29:13

And we just took out the adult

29:13

toilets and put in kids toilets,

29:21

types of things. And we then

29:21

struck a deal actually with

29:25

Easterseals to manage this

29:25

facility for us because we knew

29:29

nothing about managing a

29:29

daycare. There's all kinds of

29:32

permits and and some horror

29:32

stories going around there was

29:38

again, people of that era would

29:38

remember there was like I think

29:41

it was the Mary Martin preschool

29:41

where they had all kinds of

29:45

child abuse things that happen.

29:45

Allegedly, I'm not sure how I

29:50

will that came out. But anyway,

29:50

what we did is we we've struck a

29:55

deal with Easterseals to manage

29:55

this facility and hire the staff

29:59

and and it filled up instantly.

29:59

It held 126 kids in a stateful.

30:06

And we took them all the way

30:06

from basically newborns through

30:10

and it could do kit was a

30:10

teaching facility, so it could

30:14

do the kindergarten, so they

30:14

were ready for them to go on to

30:16

school. And with that, suddenly,

30:16

we were just blessed with just a

30:21

flood of these young educated

30:21

professionals, men and women,

30:26

who were for various reasons

30:26

struggling with childcare. And

30:30

so now they had it on site. And

30:30

we had our just pick of whomever

30:36

we wished. And it just the

30:36

company grew like crazy with all

30:40

of this smart, you know, talent

30:40

just I can't even describe it.

30:47

Plus, it made you feel good. One

30:47

cute story in that one of the,

30:52

the older ladies in the factory

30:52

on the assembly area, it came to

30:55

me one day. And I'll tell you a

30:55

second story about her. But it

30:59

was interesting. And she said,

30:59

Hey, would it be okay? And she

31:05

said, there's a lot of us that

31:05

are, you know, for kids are

31:07

grown, we're either getting

31:07

grandkids, or we have no

31:10

grandkids or whatever? Would it

31:10

be okay, if if we went up some

31:16

time and maybe sat down and read

31:16

a story to the kids,

31:19

oh,

31:22

I can't really see

31:22

how that could be a problem. So

31:26

that we had this large open area

31:26

in the center. So we purchased

31:30

rocking chairs, and we put in

31:30

that open area. And that

31:34

immediately this became a hit.

31:34

And it was just men and women.

31:38

In fact, I go up sometimes he's

31:38

just sitting on the floor and

31:44

but these, these ladies would go

31:44

up and sit in the rocking chair.

31:49

And they started to call it a

31:49

rocker baby program. So they

31:53

will just assess the staff with

31:53

with the kids. And of course,

31:57

you know, the moms and dads

31:57

could go have lunch with him or

32:00

go see him whenever. And this

32:00

thing just worked. It was just a

32:03

tremendous employee benefit. And

32:03

other things then grew out of

32:08

that that we talked about. We

32:08

put in a cafeteria. And so with

32:13

the actual chef and the because

32:13

we eventually we were running

32:20

three shifts. So we really were

32:20

only closed Sunday mornings,

32:25

until really about one to 1pm.

32:25

And so fast food and so on

32:32

starts to get old, really pretty

32:32

quick. And it's availability on

32:36

the off hours as well, the

32:36

places that are open those hours

32:41

usually sort of stuff that at

32:41

least I associate with three in

32:46

the morning when the bar closed,

32:48

right, yeah.

32:51

So they that that

32:51

became a huge benefit. The

32:54

cafeteria actually started to

32:54

package meals that people could

32:58

order just at their desk, and

32:58

then they could go pick up these

33:03

packaged meals and take home

33:03

with them for the family. And so

33:07

that turned into a huge benefit.

33:07

Then my wife came to me with

33:11

another idea. prior life she was

33:11

a nurse before we turned her

33:16

into a production person and

33:16

running purchasing. But she

33:22

retired briefly because we now

33:22

had enough folks that she didn't

33:27

need to do these things. And she

33:27

said what we need is a is a

33:32

wellness program because you're

33:32

feeding them to well. So we

33:41

actually first put in a wellness

33:41

center with a really nice like

33:46

Nautilus kind of equipment and

33:46

so on. So we had all of the

33:49

treadmills and ellipticals and

33:49

and these kinds of things, then

33:54

we follow that very quickly by

33:54

opening a nurse's office that

33:57

she ran and where we then could

33:57

do routine kinds of things for

34:04

the employee blood pressure,

34:04

blood pressure checks and

34:07

cholesterol and someone is ill

34:07

do you really need to go see a

34:11

doctor you know dispensing

34:11

nomads or anything like this

34:14

just doing really very routine

34:14

care. And that turned into then

34:20

something that was a huge

34:20

Employee Benefit also.

34:25

You guys were like

34:25

Google before Google existed. I

34:28

mean, you just had this huge

34:28

campus this ecosystem of all

34:31

these perks and benefits it

34:31

sounds incredible. Was that very

34:36

rare back then or were there a

34:36

lot of companies doing these

34:40

sorts of things AI or anything

34:40

like that?

34:42

It was pretty

34:42

rare. I'm I am not I'm not

34:47

aware. I'm sure other people

34:47

did. Or certainly did pieces of

34:51

that. I don't know of anyone in

34:51

our geographic area. Yeah, that

34:55

had all of those. Today care

34:55

particularly that Was that one

35:00

was perhaps the most unique of

35:00

all of them. But it's great to

35:04

know. And you know, and it

35:04

really because we had the space

35:09

and we were fortunate in

35:09

striking a deal with

35:12

professionals to run this, that

35:12

it was just an incredible

35:15

employee benefit. And we allowed

35:15

the neighborhood to use it also

35:19

because we didn't fill up 126

35:19

kids, but by allowing the

35:26

neighborhood to fill the open

35:26

spots and always stay full.

35:29

Well, of course, they made an

35:29

incredible space outside we set

35:33

up play yard for each age group,

35:33

because we had it was like a

35:36

campus out their own their own

35:36

play yard.

35:42

Yeah. Wow, what a

35:42

fun mix of professional and

35:46

play.

35:48

Yes, there was

35:48

one, one quick story on the lady

35:53

that came to me about the rocket

35:53

before it was rocket baby. This

35:58

lady now currently, I'm the

35:58

North American technical

36:02

director, also, at least for the

36:02

next year, ICAPE corporation to

36:06

whom we sold the divsys

36:06

operation, and then opened the

36:10

military group. But so we have

36:10

in this facility assembly and

36:16

and essentially PCB sales. Well,

36:16

people are a big problem. But a

36:22

lady called me, oh, maybe four

36:22

or five months ago. And she

36:28

said, Hey, I've retired and I

36:28

work for you for a lot of years.

36:33

And I need something to do

36:33

because I'm going crazy. Well,

36:37

that's cool is you know, I mean,

36:37

if your eyesight is still good,

36:41

and your hand eye coordination

36:41

is good. So she came in for an

36:46

interview. And we hired her.

36:46

Well, this lady about a month

36:50

ago had her 87th birthday

36:53

at seven. Oh my

36:53

goodness.

36:57

And I just think

36:57

no one wants your

37:00

money. Oh, yeah.

37:01

Wow. Seven saying

37:01

I am bored. Goodness,

37:06

I hope I can use

37:06

the bathroom myself and 87 Much

37:09

less PCB.

37:12

Yeah, imagine

37:12

doing some more. eye sight is

37:16

good, or poor. it's just

37:16

amazing.

37:19

That's a good

37:19

stock there. Wow. Well, I'm

37:23

gonna bring this back towards

37:23

the technical end of things for

37:27

for this last one or two

37:27

questions. What are some of the

37:30

biggest challenges implementing

37:30

electronic designs into

37:35

products?

37:37

There's a while.

37:37

Number one is I think Mac I was

37:44

blessed in my early career, that

37:44

in the USA, really the PCB

37:49

industry pretty much was created

37:49

here. And so we could design

37:56

products. And we could either

37:56

make the PCBs ourselves are with

38:01

a very short travel distance,

38:01

don't see them being made. The

38:06

same was true on putting the

38:06

parts on the boards and

38:08

assembling. So consequently, as

38:08

design engineers, we had the

38:12

benefit of seeing how the

38:12

product was, was being made. And

38:17

working very closely with the

38:17

engineers that were doing those

38:20

particular processes, which

38:20

helped us to create really,

38:24

really good designs, very

38:24

manufacturable designs, however,

38:28

now is the protector, the USA,

38:28

the PCB industry is virtually

38:33

gone from here. And to a large

38:33

extent, the assembly of those

38:38

boards as well, I won't mention

38:38

assembly is making a healthy

38:42

return. But if we take the

38:42

situation as of today, so if

38:46

you're a young design engineer,

38:46

you're not one of the old salts

38:49

that had this benefit. You're

38:49

coming out of school, you've got

38:52

all these computer skills, you

38:52

know how to run simulations, you

38:56

know how to do all of these

38:56

things, that you don't know how

38:59

to make anything. And so you're

38:59

creating designs in a vacuum

39:04

based upon what you see on a

39:04

tube and algorithms that someone

39:08

wrote for you, and parts that

39:08

were made and stored in the

39:12

library and so on. And as a

39:12

consequence of that, your first

39:17

design probably ain't gonna

39:17

work. And if it does, it's

39:23

probably not going to be

39:23

something that's cost effective

39:25

to manufacture. And so I think

39:25

one of the biggest hurdles today

39:30

is how to bridge this gap.

39:30

Because we got all of these

39:33

bright young engineers coming

39:33

out, they've got these

39:36

phenomenal skills. They have

39:36

these creative ideas, but

39:41

eventually you have to make

39:41

stuff. And unless you want to be

39:45

if it's just software. And so

39:45

that's what I see is that the

39:50

benefit that myself and my

39:50

generation had as engineers,

39:55

these these younger engineers

39:55

don't have that. And we have to

39:59

figure out How to give them that

39:59

experience back. And that's

40:03

really a lot of what I'm trying

40:03

to do and the company that that

40:07

I work for now. But I think

40:07

everybody's struggling with this

40:12

because my day all day, every

40:12

day today is spent talking to

40:16

people about how do you how do

40:16

you make this? How do you turn

40:20

this into something real? And

40:20

that I think if we can fix that

40:25

problem, it's going to be pretty

40:25

phenomenal. But all of these

40:29

creative kids can do.

40:30

Yeah. Amen to

40:30

that. Kids. Yeah. Okay. Well,

40:36

Stan, this has been really a

40:36

delight speaking with you. Thank

40:39

you again for for sharing some

40:39

of your time today. How can

40:43

people get in touch with you?

40:44

Well, very easy.

40:44

One, I do have a LinkedIn page.

40:48

And I will confess that I don't

40:48

go there often. But if they send

40:53

an email through that, I get it.

40:53

But also my email is pretty

40:57

simple. It is Stan stan dot

40:57

Bentley spell Be en t le y. And

41:04

then that is at Dave arrow,

41:04

which is spelled di vaero.com.

41:14

And I respond to I get lots of

41:14

emails every day and I try to

41:19

respond to every single one of them,

41:21

as evidenced by

41:21

the 87 year old woman who's now

41:24

working for you again.

41:27

I think it's a

41:27

great human interest story. I

41:30

hope all of us can make it that far.

41:32

Oh, absolutely.

41:32

Yeah. All right, Stan. Well,

41:35

again, thank you so much. I

41:35

really appreciate you talking

41:38

with me today.

41:40

You're very welcome. I've enjoyed it.

41:45

I'm Aaron Moncur,

41:45

founder of pipeline design, and

41:49

engineering. If you liked what

41:49

you heard today, please share

41:52

the episode. To learn how your

41:52

team can leverage our team's

41:55

expertise developing turnkey

41:55

equipment, custom fixtures and

41:59

automated machines and with

41:59

product design, visit us at Team

42:03

pipeline.us Thanks for listening