Big Rocks Engineering

10/20/2026

📣 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐄 𝐔𝐒 𝐀𝐓 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐍-𝟐-𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖!

Big Rocks Engineering is heading to Cincinnati, Ohio.

📅 October 28–29, 2026
📍 First Financial Center, Cincinnati, Ohio

Will you be attending the show?

𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐛𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝟐𝟒𝟒, say hello and let’s explore how we can work together!

𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄.

10/16/2026

𝐀𝐧𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 whether your supplier can do it on the thousandth part, in month eleven, when nobody's watching.

There's a 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 on the wall at CED Precision Machining from Essex Industries — a leading supplier to aerospace and defense. Those are issued annually for sustained quality, on-time delivery, and service. Not one good quarter. A full year.

That's what 𝟐𝟓+ 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 looks like in practice: 𝘔𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘬 4-𝘢𝘹𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳-𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪-𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘸𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘌𝘋𝘔, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘫𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰 3½ 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘬. 𝘏𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘔𝘔 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵. 𝐈𝐒𝐎 𝟗𝟎𝟎𝟏 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝.

Send us a print through the contact form on our website. We'll show you what consistent looks like.

— 𝐌𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐥 | 𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐁𝐢𝐠𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠.𝐜𝐨𝐦 | (𝟑𝟏𝟒) 𝟔𝟒𝟗-𝟎𝟔𝟏𝟎

10/15/2026

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐅𝐀𝐁𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐇 𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐲. 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲.

✔ Pick one leadership habit and put it on this week's calendar.
✔ Map your BD pipeline and find the one constraint.
✔ Give one team ownership of one improvement, then get out of the way.

That's it. No transformation initiative. No consultant. No line item you have to defend to your board.

I've watched this play out on our own floor. An operator flags a recurring tolerance issue before it becomes a customer complaint and because ownership is the norm, the fix ships that week instead of that quarter. No committee. No project charter.

That's not a special case. That's Tuesday.

𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥, 𝐅𝐀𝐁𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐇 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, 𝐋𝐚𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐬, 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫. 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝟐𝟎 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝟐𝟎% 𝐨𝐟𝐟.

Come say hello. I'd rather hear what you're working on than talk at you.

- 𝑴𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑯𝒊𝒍𝒍 | 𝑪𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒇 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒕𝒉 𝑶𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒓, 𝑩𝒊𝒈 𝑹𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒖𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈

10/14/2026

𝐂𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬? 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐠𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠.

A skills gap can limit production capacity, slow growth, create bottlenecks, and put pressure on the people you already have.

So what can manufacturers actually do about it?

👉 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐠𝐚𝐩—and turn a workforce constraint into an opportunity.
https://bigrocksengineering.com/the-skills-gap-in-manufacturing/

The skills gap in manufacturing is more than a hiring challenge. Learn how workforce constraints impact production, capacity and growth.

10/13/2026

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐚 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭.

I spent a day at International Manufacturing Technology Show, and we weren't there to look at shiny equipment. We went for one thing: 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 and figuring out how we start integrating machine tending into our machining centers.

And look, I know where people's heads go when they hear that. But we're not doing this to replace anybody. We're doing it so the people we already have can do higher and better things than standing at a machine loading and unloading it all day.

Every shop I talk to is short on skilled people. So why would I take the ones I have and park them on the lowest-value job in the building?

One other thing. 𝐀 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. Walk in without one and you come home with a tote bag full of brochures. Walk in knowing what your bottleneck is and every conversation gets sharper.

If you're looking at automation right now, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧? Drop it in the comments, I'm curious what other people are running into.

10/09/2026

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐅𝐐 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫.

Here's what's usually happening on the other end of that silence.

The shop opened your package, found a drawing without complete tolerances, no material callout on two parts and a note that says “match existing.” Match existing what? They don't have the existing part.

So your RFQ went into a pile. Not because they don't want the work — because quoting it means guessing, and guessing on a quote is how shops lose money. The jobs with clean packages get quoted first. Yours waits.

Fast quotes aren't a function of how nicely you ask. They're a function of how little the supplier has to guess.

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰 — 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 — 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 (𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵). 𝐖𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭.

10/08/2026

𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐀𝐘! 𝟒𝐩𝐦 𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐱 𝐂𝐨-𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝟖𝟐𝟐𝟏 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐭𝐚 𝐀𝐯𝐞, 𝐒𝐭. 𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐢𝐬, 𝐌𝐎 𝟔𝟑𝟏𝟏𝟏

Manufacturing on the Rocks kicks off this afternoon. Doors open at 4, drinks are cold and the room fills up faster than you'd think.

𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐮𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫. 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐢𝐧.

If you're coming, find me. I'd rather hear what you're working on than talk at you.

And if today doesn't work, don't sweat it. We run this the second Thursday of every month, so there's always another one coming.

Who's in? Say hi in the comments so I know to look for you.

10/07/2026

𝐍𝐨 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚. 𝐍𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐥. 𝐍𝐨 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡.

𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰, 𝟒𝐩𝐦 𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐱 𝐂𝐨-𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠.

Here's the whole event. Somebody brings up the thing they've been fighting for six months, and somebody across the table already solved it two years ago. That's it.

If you've been meaning to come and keep not making it, this is the one. Two hours with people who get what you do without you having to explain it. That's harder to find than it should be.

𝐍𝐨 𝐑𝐒𝐕𝐏, 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐮𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫. 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐩.
Bring a colleague. Bring the thing you're stuck on.

10/06/2026

𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐈'𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐀𝐁𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐇.

1️⃣ 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭. Invest in people before you ask more of them. Leadership development gets budgeted like capital equipment: planned, funded, maintained. Not squeezed in when there's time.
2️⃣ 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡. Apply operational excellence to business development. Your pipeline has a throughput just like a machine cell. Find the constraint before you add more leads.
3️⃣ 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. Make everyone an owner of the outcome. Improvement can't live in engineering. It has to live on the floor.

The reason it works isn't any one pillar. It's that each one feeds the next. Better leadership makes people willing to flag problems. People flagging problems makes improvement real. Improvement makes you a supplier customers keep coming back to.

That's the compounding effect, and it's what I'm walking through in Vegas.

Session details and registration in the comments. 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝟐𝟎 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝟐𝟎%.

𝐌𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐥 | 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐫, 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠

10/02/2026

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲.

Most people treat powder coating as the last step — the thing you figure out once the parts exist. Then the coater's lead time slips two weeks and your finished inventory sits there, unsellable.

Total Powder Coat & Finish, LLC. runs two systems for that reason. A 20-foot batch booth and oven for smaller runs and a fully automated chain-driven line with quick color change for volume, handling parts up to 54 inches. Small jobs don't queue behind big ones.

And because they sit inside the 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲, they do more than coat: 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒚, 𝒌𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 40,000+ 𝒔𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒓. 𝑷𝑨𝑪𝑪𝑨𝑹 𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅, 𝑪𝑪𝑨𝑰 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓.

Your finisher shouldn't be your bottleneck. Fill out the contact form on our website and we'll quote your next run.

— 𝐌𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐥 | 𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠.𝐜𝐨𝐦 | (𝟑𝟏𝟒) 𝟔𝟒𝟗-𝟎𝟔𝟏𝟎