Proactivity Generates Success: Takeaways from Top Shops 2025

Well before data-driven manufacturing became popular, Modern Machine Shop’s Top Shops benchmarking program gave manufacturers something the industry desperately needed: a data-driven look at what separates the most successful machining businesses from the rest. Against a racing-themed setting at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, this year’s Top Shops Conference brought that data to life.

Across two days in Charlotte, shop owners, programmers, machinists, manufacturing engineers and business leaders gathered to share advice on practical strategies, technologies and systems that move shops forward and streamline day-to-day production.

If there was a unifying message this year, it was that competitive advantage comes from intentionality. Whether in workforce development, quoting, sales strategy, automation or shopfloor processes, Top Shops are outperforming the competition because they build repeatable systems.

Investment Opens New Doors

During his presentation, Gardner Business Media’s David Necessary gave an overview of the data from the 2025 Top Shops survey. As part of it, he covered some of the differences between policies of Top Shops — the top 20% of survey respondents — and other shops that responded to the survey.

Top Shops, Necessary said, consistently made larger capital investments as a percentage of sales than other shops, and the investment into new equipment and software consistently led to higher revenue per machine and per employee. New capabilities led to not only the ability to perform additional work for existing clients, but improved marketability toward new clients.

This matches with a presentation from DGS Marketing’s Leslie Galbreath. In it, Galbreath noted the importance of unique selling points in drawing attention through marketing — unique capabilities being a potentially big selling point.

Winning Jobs Requires Marketing Smarter, Quoting Faster

Top Shops, Necessary revealed, were also more likely to invest into marketing through social media, customer tours, online videos and other kinds of online advertising. But as Galbreath’s presentation cautioned, shops shouldn’t take that to mean more marketing is the answer. Instead, smarter deployment of marketing is more likely to win jobs.

Good marketing, she said, lets potential customers know what’s in it for them and why they should care. To this goal, she recommended targeting marketing efforts toward a distinct audience segment rather than going broad. “Precision beats reach,” as she put it, and advertising distinct advantages to customers in specific industries and areas makes the best use of a shop’s marketing dollars.

Once shops grab the attention of a potential customer and receive an RFQ, said Francois Gau of GrowthHive, they need to present a quote within a day. Fast e-commerce has affected what customers expect in both their personal and professional lives, so meeting this target is vital to winning business. Necessary’s Top Shops data bears out this truth, with Top Shops reporting a one-day quote time and seeing a 19% higher quote-to-book ratio.

Take Responsibility for Hiring and Retention

Matt Wardle, president of two-time Top Shops Honoree JD Machine, brought Necessary’s discussion of investments into the realm of hiring and retention. The shop has developed an internal apprenticeship program, but Wardle said the shop also relies on other investments in marketing and branding, both internal and external. “Your brand reflects your priorities,” Wardle said, and so it is important to develop a positive internal brand by setting clear expectations to new and old employees, explaining the reasoning behind policies and requests and regularly discussing the vision for the company with employees. Equally important is keeping a clean and safe environment and investing in upskilling your employees to promote from within — after all, he pointed out, stagnation or feeling unsafe are major reasons employees leave.

Wardle also pointed to the necessity of working with local schools and other machine shops to build a thriving talent pool. Partnering with technical colleges to help shape their curriculum provides a potential source of employees, and building positive relationships with STEM teachers and school administrators at the junior high and high school levels builds awareness for manufacturing careers and helps clear the stigma around the industry. Participating in local organizations (like the Northern Utah NTMA, in JD Machine’s case) enables a shop to pool resources with other local job shops and better tackle the challenges of recruitment. Fostering a sense of camaraderie with other shops has also reduced the risk of talent poaching, Wardle said.

Referral programs are another effective way to recruit talent, Wardle said, as “your best external branding is from your team.” If employees want their friends and family to come work alongside them, that’s a strong vote of confidence in their workplace. Wardle said JD Machine has made 15 hires in the last year through referrals. Of these, 11 have stayed.

Proactive Strategies for Human Resources and Business Strategies

In the first presentation of the HR and Business Strategies track, “Systems Over Sweat: How Better Systems Build Top Shops Without Burnout,” ProShop’s Paul Van Metre encouraged shops to be proactive instead of reactive. This was in the context of sales (i.e., shops should choose a niche and market themselves to that niche instead of passively quoting whatever jobs come through), but it proved to be a theme that tied together the next two days of presentations: Strong business plans and HR strategies are weighed and planned.

Gabe Draper of Factur expanded on Van Metre’s idea in his presentation on market diversification. He warned that if shops aren’t proactive with go-to-market strategies, they will struggle to make it through the “valley of death” as they grow from a mom-and-pop shop to an enterprise manufacturer. To help shops reach their chosen markets, Gorman-Pompili Communications’ Marie Pompili walked attendees through the steps of defining a shop’s external brand, from determining a value proposition to establishing a communications plan.

With continuing difficulties in the labor market, recruiting and training is a major area where shops can’t afford to be complacent. This presentation track expanded Wardle’s advice from the general sessions into other directions. According to NextGenSkilledTrades Consulting’s Darryl Gratrix in his presentation, “Attracting the Next Generation,” the industry doesn’t have a talent shortage — it has a visibility shortage, and it’s not going to be fixed by doing what’s always been done. Shops need to work together to change the perception of the industry.

Fortunately, resources exist for workforce development, but shops need to take advantage. In her presentation about using grants to fund strategic investments, Micki Vandeloo of Lakeview Consulting told the audience, “If you’re not accessing training grants, you’re really missing out.” These grants don’t just fall into shops’ laps — they have to seek them out, apply and ensure they’re managed properly.

Shops can also take advantage of the Navy’s Talent Pipeline, as described by Austin Rock and Joey Petit. Petit, of the US Navy Talent Pipeline, described the Navy’s aggressive investments in domestic manufacturing capacity, including the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing (ATDM), a school located in Danville, Virginia, for training students in different areas of manufacturing with full scholarships available. Rock then shared how Acutec, a shop in rural Crawford County, Pennsylvania has used programs such as this to increase employment even as the local labor supply drops. NIMS’ Montez King also spoke on training, laying out a strategy for upskilling organically, within the day-to-day workflows of a business.

Culture is a critical factor in employee retention that shopGURU’s Boris Soldo discussed in his presentation. Through his own experience as a shop owner, he showed how culture isn’t just something shops can create one time and put on their walls — it’s built in small moments of reaction, gratitude and teamwork, starting at the top.

Several presentations focused on succession planning, emphasizing how important it is for shop owners to proactively establish plans. Failing to do so sets neither the previous owner nor the new owner up for success. NuVescor’s Seth Getz laid out the options for business transition, from family and management-team handovers to ESOPs and third-party sales. For shops considering the third-party sale route, Van Metre, along with Hill Manufacturing and Fabrication’s Mike Payne, shared how shops can proactively increase the value of their business for a successful exit. But because business owners often go through the process only once, it can be difficult to know how to sell a business. In another presentation, Getz walked attendees through the steps of a third-party sale, from finding the right buyer to closing.

Machining Technologies and Shopfloor Practices

While the Business Strategies and Workforce track focused on the people and plans behind successful shops, the Machining Technology and Shopfloor Practices track explored how digital tools and practical automation are reshaping production.

In “Data-Driven Manufacturing: How Automation Powers Predictive Maintenance and Real-Time Decision Making,” ANCA’s Steffen Kluth showed how tool manufacturers and job shops are leveraging connected measurement systems to tighten tolerances and reduce scrap. Data isn’t a luxury, he said — it’s fundamental to maintaining competitiveness.

In “Adapting to Change: Leveraging Legacy Equipment and Real-Time Data for Smarter Shopfloor Management,” Amper founder Akshat Thirani and Hendrick Motorsports’ director of operational excellence, Megan Horn, demonstrated how even older machines can become sources of actionable insight. Through simple sensors and dashboards, shops are identifying bottlenecks, reducing downtime and improving scheduling accuracy without major capital outlays.

Kennametal’s Ed Rusnica explored how AI-supported toolpath guidance, tool selection and digital machining models are reducing trial-and-error on high-value parts. Not one for hype, Rusnica framed AI as the next iteration of process engineering, capable of providing faster feedback loops and more predictable results.

Finally, in “How ERP Facilitates Communication Between the Shop Floor and Management,” Aptean’s Glenn Julia emphasized the importance of connecting production data with leadership decision-making. His session reinforced one of this year’s recurring themes: Visibility is now a competitive asset. Shops that tie their planning, scheduling, quality and financial data together are better positioned to quote accurately, manage labor and reduce chaos.

Across most of these sessions, it became clear that digitalization is no longer synonymous with large-scale automation projects. Even with the advent of AI, this industry advances through incremental improvements — better data collection, clearer communication, smarter tool paths, connected shopfloor devices — and these improvements compound into real productivity gains. The shops applying these principles are not necessarily the biggest, but they are the ones building the kind of operational resilience that showed up so clearly in this year’s Top Shops benchmarking data.