Lean Built: Manufacturing Freedom
Aug 24, 2026 · 41 min · 10 segments
What happens when the systems meant to make your shop more efficient start creating more complexity? Can automation be dangerous? When a system works reliably, how do you keep human checks from…
Andrew, for me, it's the time of the year that I really get caught up on accounting, at looking at different HR things.
We renew our healthcare every September, October, so I'm in that season.
I've been in the books.
I'm always looking at the books.
I'm in and out of accounts, just taking an overview course.
You know what I've learned this past week? This is the year in which these systems and the third-party integrators they'd really need to start talking to each other because there are so many systems that are wonderful on their own, on their siloed location, but they're not talking to each other.
I don't know what your accounting looks like, but we've been on QuickBooks desktop, which is like a dinosaur at this point, but it works.
It's familiar and there's no more fees.
So I've been kind of not kicking the can down the road, but just hesitant to moving to something that's subscription-based that just isn't necessary.
But for me, it's like, well, this is one of those things that works and accounting doesn't feel like there's a lot of innovation in it.
The jump in technology to something else, I don't know.
I'm not sure it's worth it, but it's worth it if there are APIs that I can plug in and get things talking to each other.
If you get creative in finance, you make a lot of money.
If you get creative in accounting, you go to jail.
Exactly.
That type of thing.
So that's what I've been at this week.
I don't know.
I just really think that it's time for, well, it's been time.
This is like really the year where AI has really exploded and it's put high-end coding in the hands of every person.
I mean, still, you have to have a decent background and just... kind of computer science-y stuff and kind of speak the lingo, you could level up pretty quickly.
You know, and at the beginning of the year, I told you, you know, I wrote a bunch of software and then, which was not Stoke Forge.
It was just like, hey, our magnetic pinboard, we need to go digital.
And there is no spreadsheet that could duplicate this.
Andrew, for me, it's the time of the year that I really get caught up on accounting, at looking at different HR things.
We renew our healthcare every September, October, so I'm in that season.
I've been in the books.
I'm always looking at the books.
I'm in and out of accounts, just taking an overview course.
You know what I've learned this past week? This is the year in which these systems and the third-party integrators they'd really need to start talking to each other because there are so many systems that are wonderful on their own, on their siloed location, but they're not talking to each other.
I don't know what your accounting looks like, but we've been on QuickBooks desktop, which is like a dinosaur at this point, but it works.
It's familiar and there's no more fees.
So I've been kind of not kicking the can down the road, but just hesitant to moving to something that's subscription-based that just isn't necessary.
But for me, it's like, well, this is one of those things that works and accounting doesn't feel like there's a lot of innovation in it.
The jump in technology to something else, I don't know.
I'm not sure it's worth it, but it's worth it if there are APIs that I can plug in and get things talking to each other.
If you get creative in finance, you make a lot of money.
If you get creative in accounting, you go to jail.
Exactly.
That type of thing.
So that's what I've been at this week.
I don't know.
I just really think that it's time for, well, it's been time.
This is like really the year where AI has really exploded and it's put high-end coding in the hands of every person.
I mean, still, you have to have a decent background and just... kind of computer science-y stuff and kind of speak the lingo, you could level up pretty quickly.
You know, and at the beginning of the year, I told you, you know, I wrote a bunch of software and then, which was not Stoke Forge.
It was just like, hey, our magnetic pinboard, we need to go digital.
And there is no spreadsheet that could duplicate this.
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