Episode #205A - Footprints

Digital fastener data is like footprints that leave a long-lasting imprint. So says JR Prahl of mega-industrial supplier OneMonroe (45:19). On the Fastener News Report, senior fastener newsman Mike McNulty welcomes Martin Fastening Supply EVP Scott McDaniel to discuss the soaring FDI readings from the most recent report (10:18). Brian and Eric set a new fastener data course of their own while trying out a new, “tighter” format.

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Footprints

Introduction

Eric Dudas with you here. It’s another episode of Fully Threaded Radio. This is going to be episode 205, part one. I’ll talk about that in a little bit, but first, I’m coming to you from semi-rural Northeast Ohio, as many of you know. From the Fully Threaded West Studios, it’s Brian Musker. What’s up, Brian?

I am way West of you.

It’s Fully Threaded Radio, the voice of the FCH Sourcing Network. We’re doing something a little bit different this time. We’re experimenting with some formatting changes. It’s been a long time coming. We have a lot of things in the air. This is the perfect episode to try this out, Brian. I know you’re running on overload. We’ve been running here and there. We’ve got a nice tight episode for everyone. See how this one flies.

We’ll have part 2 of episode 205. Both are going to be great. This time, we’re going to shoot a conversation with our long-lost buddy, JR Prahl. He’s with OneMonroe. You might remember him from JHP. They’re part of OneMonroe. He’s been working with Brian on some data issues, as you’ll read during this conversation. It’s a lot of fun. We’ve also got the Fastener News Report with Mike McNulty. This time, he welcomes Martin Fastening Supply’s President, Scott McDaniel. They’re going to go over the FDI, which was a real shocker this time.

We don’t know what to think.

There’s all this upheaval in the world. On top of it, we have the FDI. There’s a lot of good news in the world, though, with all the chaos happening. As you’ll soon read, the FDI was a shocker in a positive direction. Plus, we’ve got the strike averted. That seems like ancient history. We could have had a toothache, but it looks like it was a tragedy narrowly averted.

It could still turn into a headache.

It’s not until after the election.

Nothing is going to happen until after the election.

It’s either that or something big. Nobody knows. We’ll all be standing by. We’ll have episode 205, part 1, and hopefully, part 2. This one’s going to fly, with any luck, on October 22nd, 2024. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. Hope these adjustments meet your approval. We’ll have to watch the numbers as we are able to read them, which isn’t that great, but that’s another story.

Before we fire into it, let’s point out that the title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio are Brighton-Best International, Goebel Fasteners, and Star Stainless. Fully Threaded is also sponsored by Buckeye Fasteners, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink Fastener Supply, Fastener Technology International, INxSQL Software, J.Lanfranco, Solution Industries, 3Q, Inc., Volt Industrial Plastics, and Würth Industry North America. It’s a great lineup of partners that brings you this show, everybody. Please don’t fail to let them know that you appreciate it.

Let us know what you think of the show. The email address is FTR@FullyThreaded.com. Your comments are always welcome. We’re going to tighten this one up and launch right into it. We’re going to take a quick break. When we come back, we’ll yammer at you for a second or two, and then get into the Fastener News Report. Our feature is this conversation with JR Prahl.

He is Mr. Prahl, as he is known to me.

He’s known as Richard these days by me. I’ll tell you about that in a few minutes.

I look forward to seeing JR come back. He used to turn up occasionally and give us little nuggets of wisdom. It was a very interesting and good relationship we had with JR Prahl.

He’s got a great voice for podcasting. He’s been in the podcast business in his own way, as we’ll soon find out. We talk about a lot of things. It centers on fastener inventory data, as you read at the top of this one, everybody. It’s a great conversation. We’ll be back with all that and more. It’s a little bit more because it’s going to be a tight one. We appreciate you tuning in, everyone.

Stick around.

It’s Fully Threaded.

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Fastener News Kickoff & Industry Updates

It’s the news segment already. Something’s out of whack here.

What’s going on?

We’re jumping right into it. It’s going to be a surprise for some folks, at least if you’re not on the FDI subscriber list. If you’re not, you can get out to FDISurvey.com and join on. That way, you’ll get the report as soon as it’s issued each month. Otherwise, you’ll have to find it circulating around or tune in to Fully Threaded.

This one was a bit of a surprise, as Mike and Scott will soon be discussing. A couple of news items I don’t think McNulty covers before we get into it. Carl Spackman of Copper State Bolt & Nut is the new President of the Pac-West. That’s the Pacific-West Fastener Association, the grooviest of all the associations, Brian.

I know, even though we’re a member of a different one.

We’re a member of all of them.

It’s in a funny way.

Mallory Nichols is the association’s vice president. Ryan McCaffrey has been elevated to the position of secretary-treasurer. I forgot about that. They have the combined office in that one.

That’s quite common in associations, though.

I’ve always attributed it to the Pac-West marching to their own drummer. That’s the leadership lineup for 2025. One other tidbit, Fastener Fair USA is happening in Nashville this coming May. They announced that they’re co-locating this time with ALUMINUM USA, which is a forum for leading suppliers in aluminum products and various industry professionals related to that. There might be some crossover for certain of our fastener friends.

We have a company that specializes in aluminum fasteners.

I’m thinking of Ms. Coar, the cousin of Tracey. She’ll be there, but I’m sure plenty of others will be as well. Fastener Fair USA is happening in May in Nashville. Be there or be square. Once again, the title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio are Brighton-Best, Goebel, and Star. Volt Industrial Plastics brings you the Fastener News Report. Mike McNulty is focused as ever this time. Bri, you know what to do here. In keeping with our theme, our theme is going to be tight.

For news about screws that you can use, here’s Mike McNulty.

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FDI Surges As Industry Eyes Growth Amid Uncertainty

This is Mike McNulty from Fastener Technology International Magazine. I am bringing you the Fastener News Report, which is sponsored by Volt Industrial Plastics, makers of the world’s finest plastic fasteners. The International Longshoremen’s Association and the US Maritime Alliance bullied their way to a 62% raise over six years to reach up to $63 per hour for doing the same jobs as they are doing today, while protesting and saying, “No, thank you,” to all levels of automation by shamefully striking the east and Gulf Coast ports of the United States of America in the middle of a hurricane recovery effort. I am still focused on fasteners and ready to deliver the Fastener News Report.

In this episode, Martin Fastening Solutions Executive Vice President Scott McDaniel joins us to reveal the results of the Fastener Distributor Index, also known as the FDI. We have our top story from the MWFA and newsmaker headlines from NORMA, Bossard, TR Fastenings, Applied Bolting, AFC, Copper State Bolt, MSC, and more. On the back page report, we’re going to talk about the 2024 election. The seasonally adjusted fastener distributor index for September 2024 surged to 59.0 versus 53.8 in August.

This was the highest FDI of 2024 by far. The forward-looking indicator, also known as the FLI, also rose to 50.5 after two straight months below 50. It’s 47.4 and 49.6, respectively, in August and July. Fastener Distributor Index data is collected and analyzed by the FCH Sourcing Network and Baird. The FDI seeks to identify demand, pricing, and outlook trends within the American fastener distribution industry. To get some insight into these results, we talked to Martin Fastening Solutions Executive Vice President Scott McDaniel. Scott, thanks for joining us on the Fastener News Report.

Thank you very much, Mike. It’s truly a pleasure. I’m happy to give my commentary.

Is this your first time doing a commentary on the FDI and the FLI?

It absolutely is. It’s the first time I’ve been able to participate, but I’ve been a longtime fan of the show.

Your timing is good. You picked one with a high FDI. What do you think about the FDI results?

It was interesting. I wasn’t completely surprised by the results that we’ve seen a lot of positivity in the marketplace. However, there are still a lot of unknowns and a lot of uncertainty with not only the economic environment, but also the political and cultural environments around the world. It’s certainly a more positive outlook for the rest of 2024 and into 2025.

We’ve seen a lot of positivity in the marketplace. However, there are still many unknowns and a great deal of uncertainty—not only in the economic environment, but also in the political and cultural landscapes around the world. Share on X

It was a good result. As I said earlier in the windup, it was the highest of 2024 by quite a bit. The second highest I’m looking back here was 53 back in March. I was looking at the sales numbers. It dovetails into the first thing I want to bring up. The sales number jumped up this time to 58.4 versus 50.2. Do you guys concur with that in your operations?

We would, for sure. It’s not only for Ed Martin, but a lot of the people I talked to in the industry have seen some greater positivity and greater hope for a strong fourth quarter. From my experience in the fastener industry, the second half of the year is generally a little bit softer than the first. Election years are always a little bit different. With all the changes going on, not only in the US, but also in the grid, and some of the increased power requirements, that’s driving a lot of growth in certain sectors, and other sectors are still struggling or lagging.

It’s interesting you mentioned the electrical part of it. Is that something that you guys do a lot of work in?

We do a good amount. It’s something that’s not just the grid, but you think about all the ancillary products that go into it, from light poles to solar power and things like that. There’s definitely an increased need and growth. The backlog has remained strong in a lot of cases. We’ve seen some of the backlog soften, but in other places, the backlog is certainly increasing. With the hurricane disasters, Milton is still in the Caribbean Sea, but hopefully, it’s not nearly as damaging as they’re predicting. The devastation in eastern Tennessee and the Carolinas has created a lot of need for replacement, upgrading, and getting people back to a more normal state.

That’s a good point. We have a separate publication that covers the wiring cable industry. That’s been strong all year with all the grid reinforcements and power cables. As I was talking to some people before, the need for electricity and data does not go away. I don’t think it’ll go away anytime soon.

I started my career out in the wiring cable industry, so that’s near and dear to my heart, or at least my younger heart.

I didn’t know we had that in common. We’ll get back onto the fastener because that’s what most people have tuned in for. The numbers were all pretty solid. The sales, employment, and pricing were all up. Inventory was mixed. Deliveries were down slightly. Any comments on the numbers?

The employment piece is still strong. From my own perception, I’ve seen less of the turnover that was going on a couple of years ago. There was the big quiet quitting movement, at least in the news. Even going to restaurants and stores, you’d see a lot of places that were shutting down early because they didn’t have enough workers. That seems to have stabilized. It’s taken certainly longer than I would have expected, but good to see. The sales, as we mentioned, have been strong.

A lot of people have been trying to lean up, depending on not just as a result of inflation and the interest rates, but also trying to be a little bit more flexible in terms of their supply chain and what they’ve got ready to sell. It’s still relatively robust. There’s always a little bit of trends up and trends down. Overall, it seems pretty consistent with what I’ve seen in ten years, with the exception of the pandemic.

That’s the odd bird. We mentioned that sales were up, but the pricing year to year went from 45.2 in August to 62.5. It’s a big jump in pricing.

Our prices have been relatively stable, both on the procurement side and on the selling side. Historically, there’s always been a big push for annual cost reductions. It’s something that I’ve always struggled with myself because things don’t get cheaper year over year. It’s very much the automotive mindset where things automatically get cheaper every year. A quick trip to the grocery store will tell you that things don’t get cheaper year over year, even in spite of the inflation of the last couple of years. We’ve seen a lot less of that from customers.

Many customers were more focused on material availability and supply chain continuity. They saw the value in that. There’s been a changing of the guard, but I still anticipate people getting back to that. There’s a lot of procurement. I started my career on the supply chain side. Making sure you’re getting the best value for how you’re spending your money or what you’re buying will always be important. It’s been good to see people focusing not just on cost, but on the total cost. What’s the acquisition cost? What’s the quality? What’s the availability? Those are all key important parts of the price of an item.

Look at the big picture. You mentioned the automotive industry, where they have the sledgehammer approach to purchasing. Come on in for a beating. Hopefully, those days are changing. The other number that gets put on here is the PMI, the Purchasing Manager’s Index. That was flat, 47.2 versus the same number back in August, which was one of the lower months of 2024. There’s a little bit of difference with what we got on the FDI, the fastener side. Any insights there?

There’s always been a little bit more volatility on the supply chain side. There’s been talk about the potential of a dock worker strike on the East Coast. Thankfully, that’s been at least temporarily halted. With the continuing concern over supply chain viability in Asia and what that looks like long-term, in addition to the hurricane season, and what that does to shipping. There’s probably been more concern in 2024 than there was in 2023 in terms of what the supply chain is going to see. Hopefully, most of those things are overanalyzed and end up being better than people expect.

Let’s move on. We mentioned the forward-looking indicator bumped back over the 50 lines. Fifty is the dividing line between growing and not growing. The forward-looking indicator was at 50.5. It was after two months of being below 50. It’s inching up a little bit there. Any opinion on looking down the road?

As we get closer to the election cycle, it’s been a very unusual cycle. As you get closer, people get a little bit more certainty over what’s going to go on and what the potential effects on the economy would be. In addition, there are a lot of unknowns as people get closer to them and become more known. There was a lot of concern about the dockworker strike.

I read articles about there’ll be no Christmas presents for the kids. For food, the shelves will be empty. My opinion is always that there will be an impact. However, there will still be food on the shelves. There’ll still be presents under the tree, or however you celebrate your holidays. You’ve got to have a nice headline to generate those clicks and stories.

I was wondering if we could get a repeat of the air traffic controller situation. We’re only a few weeks away from the election. People are probably like, “Let’s move on.”

At that point, they’ll move on to the next thing. There’s always something.

It’s the next crisis.

Chinese New Year comes up every year. If nothing else, we’ve got Chinese New Year, which is a great celebration. There’ll always be something that causes potential disruptions and anxiety. We will get through it. I am sure.

The six-month outlook improved a little bit. We had 39% of respondents expecting things to be better. It puts us right in the middle of the second quarter of 2025. Thirty-six percent expected to be the same. Only 25%, one quarter, expected to be worse. That’s a little bit improved over the August numbers, which were 32%, 39%, and 29%. A little bit of people is moving into the more optimistic category.

That’s a sign of the overall report and feedback. As we get closer to the end of 2024, if I think back to the fourth quarter of 2023, a lot of people were projecting a recession in the second half of 2024. It seems like, for the last several years, people have been projecting a recession the following year. It’s whether we had a soft landing, or we were in one or not. I haven’t heard a lot of talk about a recession in 2025 so far. Knock on wood. It seems like there are more optimistic views for 2025 and beyond than we’ve seen over the last couple of cycles.

I’ve heard the same. Anything else on comments on the FDI or FLI numbers before we move on to the respondent commentary?

No, it’s very indicative of not only the feedback we see, but from other people that I’ve spoken to at the NFDA and throughout the industry. My friends and contacts in the industry have seen greater positivity. The Q1 was okay. Q2 and Q3 were better than Q1 generally. At Martin, we saw greater growth than we were expecting. Part of that comes down to the industries we’re in.

Part of that comes into the hard work that our teams have put in to generate better growth and service, and continue to expand our market share and our geographic footprint. It’s good to see for the industry. For all the challenges the industry’s had over the last couple of years, it’s nice to see some consistency until the next wave comes along. It’s good to see a little bit more reliability in the supply chain.

Fully Threaded Radio | Data Footprints — Data Footprints: For all the challenges the industry has faced over the last couple of years, it’s nice to see some consistency—at least until the next wave comes along.

It’s good to be on the positive side. Let’s move on to respondent commentary. With all the positive numbers, it was mixed still, but on the whole, it was leaning net positive. The first comment we have is, “Another surprisingly good month of sales. The orders come in. We ship them out.”

That goes with what we’ve seen as well. It’s good to see that consistency and repeatability.

Come in, you got the orders, prepare them, send them out, and get paid. The next one is, “Manufacturer price increases have slowed. Factory deliveries are starting to improve. The pandemic supply chain disruption created a backlog that appears to be working itself out. Slow but steady.”

We definitely have seen that. At some point, we will stop talking about the pandemic supply chain. To me, it will be nice. Every year, when you come back to work after the holidays, a lot of people are like, “Happy New Year.” I’ve always wondered, what’s the right date to stop saying, “Happy New Year?” Is it the 3rd? Is it the 5th? Is it the 10th? It’s like that, too. We need to remember and learn the lessons of the past. It’s always good not to forget, but we are certainly in the next phase and wave of our professional careers and personal lives. It’s good to have it in the rearview mirror, for sure.

There were a couple of people who said the comments were mixed. Here’s one that’s a little bit mixed. “September was a brisk month of activity. However, our supply chain didn’t seem to match the level of expectation. Invoicing was slowed due to the product not arriving on time. Otherwise, we would have experienced an above-average month. Bookings remain strong, even though the economy is starting to show cracks.”

Depending on where you’re sourcing your product from, the transportation consistency coming out of Asia has been relatively stable. It depends on when they were looking at it. They were starting to see increased lead times coming for things on the East Coast, as people were trying to get their products in and trying to rush more things out. There’ll always be something that pops up. Sometimes, it’s dependent on your supply base or what ports you’re using.

There was a disaster in Baltimore, where the ship hit the dock. To go back to the disaster planning, I remember seeing articles about how this was going to destroy the supply chain on the East Coast for several months. Thankfully, that story didn’t seem to pan out, but there was always something. There are enough options and variations in our ability to get goods from point A to point B to help cover some of those surprises or hiccups along the way.

It seems like somebody always steps into the gap. The next comment is also what I would put in the mixed category. “Our US orders had rebounded in August after a very slow July, but our incoming order rate dropped back down again in September. On the bright side, our international order activity was strong in September.”

July is historically not a great sales or revenue month in the US. It’s like August in Europe, where a lot of people are on vacation. In July in the US, there are a lot of family vacations and a lot of downtime. A lot of factories and manufacturers use part of that time to shut down and retool or make changes to the production for the rest of the year. We certainly didn’t see that. Our July exceeded our June.

Part of that goes to the industries that we’re in. Sometimes, it’s customer by customer. I was a little bit surprised by the commentary about the strength of Europe. Depending on which articles you read, certain places in Europe have struggled, but others seem to be doing quite well. We’re a part of a global economy. Anytime people are doing well, it’s always a good thing.

As you said, it depends on where you’re at, what industries you’re in, and where you’re sourcing. A lot of factors go into the mix. Our last comment is our longest comment, too. Here we go. “2024 has been impossible to gauge. We’ve had mixed results. As the year progresses, we are experiencing slowing sales, with no historic correlation.Federal interest rate reductions and inverted bond rates, among others, all point to a recession, except for labor. It’s usually 3 to 6 months after the Fed rate reduction. The average is five and a half years between recessions. We’re approaching five. I’m not sure if we’ll avoid it, but I definitely see an impact in 2024.”

Talking about the recession, depending on how you want to define it, 2020 was probably a recession year with everything going on there. I read a quote that stuck with me. “History doesn’t generally repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” You can always infer what you want to infer out of data. There’s a great podcast I listen to called Freakonomics. The guys wrote a couple of books, if anybody’s ever interested. It’s interesting how they correlate information that may not be seemingly isn’t related, but ends up being related. For the same reason, some of that reduction was built in, but I am not a banker.

It’s easier to look back and look forward on some of those things. Talking about the recession, they were projecting it in the second half of 2024, but at the same time, if anybody can project a recession accurately over time, they’re probably in a lot better shape than I am financially. I would certainly like to learn that myself. You’ve got to hope for the best and try not to talk yourselves into the downward spiral or something that you can’t get yourself out of.

You can think yourself into a bad situation. That’s always something to keep in mind. It definitely hasn’t happened in 2024. That’s it for the comments and the FDI on that. If you don’t have any other commentary on that, we can move on and give you a chance to tell the audience what’s going on at Martin Fastening Solutions.

Thank you very much. I’ve been with Martin for about a year. I had the opportunity to come to Martin after the passing of Marc Strandquist. I had worked with Mark for several years. He had been a great mentor and leader of mine at Martin. Martin is a privately held MRO safety metalworking and fastener distributor. It has a great culture. We have been focused not only on expanding our presence among our customers, but also expanding geographically.

In 2024, we are celebrating our 90th anniversary. It is an amazing milestone to look back at some of the history of Martin and to see where we’ve been and where we’re going. Martin has been focused on building a very strong leadership team as well as a strong operational supply chain and associated roles. It’s been great to be part of the team and be a small part of that success so far. We’ve expanded geographically. Earlier in 2024, we had an acquisition outside Milwaukee. We are looking at continuing our geographic expansion as well as expanding the scope of products and services that we’ve supplied to our existing customers.

It’s been a great response with our customers. They have been very supportive in terms of what we do, not only in terms of the longevity of the relationship, but also in terms of the feedback that we get. We’re looking at new operational technologies and how we can better integrate AI into what we do and trying to find opportunities for customers to improve their own manufacturing processes, as well as how we interact with them. It’s been a great ride so far. I’m looking forward to the future.

That acquisition you mentioned was Trinity Hardware.

It was a portion of it. It had been acquired by Agrisolutions. They decided to divest part of that. It was a great opportunity. If you all know Dan Zehnder, that was near and dear to Dan’s heart. Dan’s a great part of our team, along with the rest of the management team. It’s an amazing group of people.

You got the good part.

They’re all good parts.

You got some of the best parts there. On the industrial distribution list, you guys came in at number 41 in 2024.

We were very proud of that. It was an exciting time for us to see the continued investment in the business by the Ruggles family. When you look at the history of how the business started and the success and the passion that not only the Ruggles have, but also the tenure of the employees. It makes it a special and unique place. I’m happy and blessed to be part of the team.

That’s especially good to see that it’s a private company that gets that high. It says here that you’ve been in the industry for 25 years in your press voice. That’s a nice milestone.

I was certainly longer than I ever expected to be. I started my career with Anixter as a junior buyer. I remember standing in line at the end of the day to fax purchase orders over. I’ve had a wealth of opportunities and some great mentors in my life. I’ve spent time in supply chain operations, sales, and leadership. I’ve always thought of myself as a supply chain person. Each of the roles is unique and important to the overall function and success of any business in any relationship.

It’s a good career in the fastener industry. It sounds like you’re in a good spot now. Best wishes to you and to Martin Fastening Solutions.

Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with everybody. I look forward to seeing what the rest of the year in 2025 and beyond holds for us.

Thanks for joining us. We’ll look forward to having you back on the Fastener News Report in the future.

Thank you very much, Mike.

That was Martin Fastening Solutions Executive Vice President Scott McDaniel. The FDI number for September 2024 was 59.0 versus 53.8 in August. Visit FDISurvey.com to participate in the process and get a detailed PDF copy of Baird’s monthly analysis. For the top story, on November 7th, 2024, the Mid-West Fastener Association, also known as the MWFA, will hold a special evening celebrating the association’s 2024 Hall of Fame inductees and scholarship recipients.

In addition to the awards, the MWFA will welcome Joe O’Neil as its guest speaker for the evening. As the longest tenured ticket executive in the NBA, O’Neil was on board for the Chicago Bulls’ legendary 1990s dynasty, overseeing the hottest tickets in sports and earning six NBA championship rings. Joe co-founded the O’Neil Family Foundation, which has helped children escape poverty in Cambodia. He received the NBA’s Value of the Game Award for his charitable work.

Thanks to member generosity and the association’s successful 2024 events, MWFA will award over $50,000 in scholarships. It is surpassing the cumulative $1 million mark in total scholarships awarded since the program began over 40 years ago. On the Hall of Fame front, the MWFA will honor the 2024 inductees who have made significant contributions to the MWFA and to the fastener industry. The 2024 company winner is Kanebridge Corporation. The individual inductees are Glen Brin of DarLoc Corporation and Robert Sachs of XL Screw.

Details are available at www.MWFA.net, as well as on page one of the October 21st, 2024 edition of the Fastener News Report monthly newsletter available online at FastenerTech.com. The MWFA tells us that anyone interested in serving a three-year term on the MWFA board of directors or wishing to nominate somebody to serve on the board should contact Francesca Lewis at MWFA at MWFA.net before October 31st, 2024.

Next up is our Fastener Newsmaker Headlines. In corporate news, NORMA Group won a patent lawsuit it had filed against Suzhou Shengnuo Connection Technology in China. The Bossard Group concluded the acquisition of the French Aero Negoce International Group, also known as ANI Group. TR Fastenings relaunched its patented EPW self-extruding thread-forming screw.

Applied Bolting Technology celebrated its 30th anniversary. E-Z LOK purchased a Loctite thread-coating application machine. Distribution Solutions Group’s operating company, Gexpro Services, acquired Tech-Components Resources, also known as TCR. Komar Screw is celebrating 55 years in business in 2024.

In personnel news, MSC Industrial Supply promoted Martina Mclsaac to President and Chief Operating Officer. AFC Industries appointed Jim Henning as the new Vice President of Sales for the AFC Tooling Group. GreatStar Tools USA promoted Roberto Izaguirre to Chief Executive Officer of Arrow Fastener Company. You can get details on all of these stories and more in Fastener Technology International Magazine and the Fastener News Report monthly newsletter. They are both available online at FastenerTech.com.

Let’s turn to the back page to talk about the 2024 election. I heard someone describe the 2024 campaigns for the USA’s upcoming federal election of President and Vice President as a circus of buffoonery, with the possible exception of JD Vance’s performance in the Vice President debate. This is the most accurate depiction I’ve heard yet of the election and much more on target than the tired and worn-out phrase of “most important election of our lifetime.”

To this circus, one can add to it the abundance of new, idiotic, and divisive slogans found on political yard signs all over our neighborhoods. It is certainly easy to become discouraged and withdrawn regarding the 2024 election, but as the following story will illustrate, there is still hope. I was in Indiana to attend a college football game at the University of Notre Dame. My wife, daughter, and I decided to walk a few miles to the game to avoid traffic and to experience the neighborhood pregame celebrations.

It is certainly easy to become discouraged and withdrawn regarding the 2024 election, but there is still hope. Share on X

Some of the usual game day ambience was slightly spoiled by political yard signs, especially ones that said things like, “Vote like your democracy depends on it because it does.” For that to be anywhere close to being true, a new US constitutional amendment would need to be on the ballot, altering or removing existing rights granted in the 236-year-old document. My annoyance was thankfully dashed away once we took our seats in the stadium for the performances delivered by the marching band, the PA announcer, the flag corps, and a couple of US Air Force pilots.

After the band marched into the stadium and played the school’s official fight song, the announcer told everyone to rise for the playing of America the Beautiful. While that great song was being played, the announcer recited the preamble of the Constitution of the United States, followed by a reading of several parts of the Declaration of Independence. Next, the band played the national anthem while the USA flag was raised to the top of the flagpole.

After the anthem, a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft from the US Air Force flew over the stadium. I don’t know if all of these elements take place before every Notre Dame football game, but it was a great show of patriotism and an excellent reminder that goodness, truth, and beauty can still be found in our great country, and that the US Constitution is still in place to help temper our natural inclinations to abuse power.

Exercise your right to vote, but don’t divorce any rights from responsibilities, including the duty to understand our systems of federal, state, and local governments, as well as private businesses and charities. Always beware of fabricated rights that are selective and divisive in their application. By the way, the preamble is very short and worth repeating here. “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

While we’re at it, here’s the famous second line of the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This has been Mike McNulty of Fastener Technology International bringing you the Fastener News Report. Please send your news, pictures, comments, corrections, or complaints to me at McNulty@FastenerTech.com.

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JR Prahl Returns: OneMonroe Growth & Data Innovation

The stars have aligned. JR Prahl is with us. What’s up, brother?

How are you doing, sir? Good to be with you again.

It’s been way too long. How have you been?

I’ve been well. I’ve been busy. There are lots of new activities at the former JHP Fasteners, now part of the OneMonroe family. There is a lot going on.

I always used to run into you. Let me back up a little bit for folks who might be newer to Fully Threaded Radio. JR used to contribute to the show all the time. We always made references to you. You might remember that. You got busy with stuff. Life took over. We dropped off. We never lost contact. You were doing some work with Brian. You guys are doing some data cleansing stuff. I was glad to hear about that. I called you up. We picked back up. We spent an hour talking about all kinds of stuff, such as podcasts, before we turned the mic on. It’s good to reconnect.

It’s good to be here.

Without going into the particular show that both of us are enjoying these days, I heard you were dabbling in a podcast of your own. Is that true?

A little bit. I was working on something internally for OneMonroe. This was 2023. I never turned it into anything serious, but it was something we were messing around with, and something I had an idea for to have an internal podcast for a company. It’s a good idea, in general, for companies as they grow larger to keep people connected. A lot of people these days want genuine, real contact with each other.

Not to get all touchy-feely here, but that’s a real felt need that people have. When you have a large, growing company, sometimes, people don’t feel that connection anymore. To help foster that, it might be a good idea to do something like that and talk with different people within the org. You could talk to a quality guy at one of your locations and give an idea of why quality is so important.

You might have a salesperson in Kansas listening to a quality guy in Boston, and was like, “I’ve only been in sales two years or a year and a half. I don’t sell a lot of fasteners, but I’m hearing from a quality guy in the fastener world.” All of a sudden, you realize the value of quality. That stuff is important. At some point in time, I’d like to revisit that and spend some more time on it. Right now, there are a lot more pressing things to do, like sell things.

It always comes in handy. Let me get this straight, though. You launched that podcast outside your normal business duties. This wasn’t something that was handed to you as a project?

No, this was something on the side I was messing around with. That’s fine.

Did you give it a title?

I honestly don’t even remember what it was now. It was something like The OneMonroe Minute or something like that. I don’t know. I’ll have to workshop that.

It sounds like it was casual, but you achieved what you needed to, connected with some people, and presented a view of the culture that they might not otherwise have had. I know expanding companies are like that. You said JHP was rolled into OneMonroe. How long has it been?

It’ll be four years in February since we’ve been part of the OneMonroe juggernaut. It’s been quite a trip.

You’ve always been a guy who has been interested in connecting people, mentoring, and helping folks along. Mostly during our many years of talking to each other, we’d run into one another at a trade show and a lot of the fastener shows. The first one that I saw you at was FABTECH in Chicago. Do you guys still do that show?

We do. We do it every other year and only when it’s in Chicago. It’s a good show for us. It’s nice to connect with our customers. A lot of our customers go to that show. That’s why you go to a trade show. You go there to find new vendors, find new customers, and connect with existing ones. Since a lot of our customers go through our Walker branch, formerly JHP, for sheet metal fabricators, it’s the number one show for that type of industry. That said, the horizon is wide open for us because under OneMonroe, we have such a wide variety of components and products. It’s mind-boggling.

Give everybody a thumbnail of this. This is just a happenstance in our conversation. I got a message, an email from Pac-West, about what’s coming up there. I noticed that OneMonroe is a sponsor of an event coming up. I thought that was pretty cool. You guys are making a push to get your name out there. What’s OneMonroe all about for folks not aware?

We’re in the fastening realm. You’re in the fastening realm. A lot of our OneMonroe sister companies that are now part of the main company are fastener distribution facilities. For example, Above Board Electronics is part of the group. Many other distribution, such as Spangle Distribution Group out of Indiana and Ohio, are part of OneMonroe. Going beyond that, we’ve diversified outside of fasteners so greatly. Fasteners are more of a diversification for OneMonroe. They were much more heavily into other types of hardware that are used in highly engineered components.

You’ve got handles, casters, and different types of hand wheels. You’ve got lots of different types of hinges and custom hinges. We even have our own manufacturing facilities that do wiring harnesses. We can do commercial wiring harnesses. We can do DoD wiring harnesses. We have a manufacturing facility in Michigan for machining. I can’t remember how many machining centers we have up there in Ira, but it’s quite a few. We do a lot of flat work. We can do a lot of custom work, holding for large assemblies, large factories that are doing engine building, and things like that. We can build assembly fixtures for that.

We even have a PCB company. If you have PC boards that need to be built for your product, I see it as a cradle-to-grave technology company for manufacturing. If someone comes to us and they’re like, “I want to build this widget,” and this widget has a PC board in it, we can get the PC board. It needs to be resistant to the environment. We have a custom gasket facility. We can make custom gaskets. We can get the plastic injection molds made through partner suppliers. We can supply the screws. We can supply the handles. We can supply everything, such as standoffs that go inside.

The direction I see OneMonroe headed is becoming a technological powerhouse in the arena of distribution. It’s not just bringing the product itself, but bringing all of the brain trusts that come along with those products to come alongside engineers and help them in the development stages of these products, and then ultimately bring it to fruition through our distribution branches. I know that’s a lot packed in there. I’m having a flow of thought there.

It’s not just about delivering the product—it’s about bringing the expertise behind it to support engineers during development and ultimately deliver it through our distribution network. Share on X

It’s a stream of consciousness. I’m going to ask you in a minute what the on-ramp to all this is, but while you’re talking, I’m thinking back to the special report that we dropped with Würth EVP Larry Stevens. We touched on additive manufacturing. While he was discussing what Würth is doing with additive or 3D printing, he said something like, “We’re coming closer and closer to this Star Trek-like replicator world where you get something created very rapidly.” It makes me think of these companies. What do you do? We do everything. That would enable it. Are you guys dipping your toe into additive also? I would expect you to be.

It’s very possible that we are in some of our divisions, but honestly, I have no firsthand knowledge of that at all.

A lot’s going on there. What side of the business are you in these days? When you were with JHP, it was a lot smaller shop. Now, you’re a $0.5-billion company. Did you make a shift in your job position, too? What is it these days?

We were talking about that, too. I was running our Walker facility for OneMonroe. That torch has been passed to Adam Kent. He’s been with us for thirteen years. I’m on to product data management. That’s exciting. It’s got an exotic name to it. I joke about that a little bit because it doesn’t sound exciting, but I honestly find it thrilling because we’re laying the foundations for the future success long after I’ve left this earth.

My perception of it is trying to ensure that we have clean data, properly classified and organized, and getting parts to where they need to be. It’ll make it infinitely easier for us to do things on the web with our web-based presence. For our sales teams, they do not have to dig through duplicate parts and descriptions that may not be up to par, and all those types of things. That’s a huge thing that needs to be done.

Every company that grows has to deal with that. I remember, I thought I was seeing something in a video on Endries. They were talking about using AI for cleaning up data or for some different things. As you absorb different companies, you have to start cleaning that data up because everybody has a different opinion of what a 1/4 20X2-inch socket and cap screw should be.

How you describe it, for sure.

What is your part number? Is your part number going to be an alphanumeric part number that is descriptive and tells you what the part is by reading it, or is it going to be 675324?

That’s a whole other enchilada, but it connected for sure.

It’s working through all that, deciphering that, and figuring out what the best practice is going to be for us. I find it quite an intriguing thing to do.

Are you in charge of coming up with a whole new part numbering scheme, too, or is that already in place and you’re working with the system you have?

Not on my own. It’s definitely not going to be done in a vacuum. We’ve got a lot of core team members who are going to be involved in that decision process, but we are still operating under a situation where different divisions have different ideas of what a part number should look like. I was surprised in my mind how much this new job is winning hearts and minds, if that makes any sense, because you’ve got hundreds and hundreds of people now. A couple of hundred of those hundreds will be making decisions regarding part numbers, at least at this point.

You have to figure out something that’s going to work for everyone and upset the least amount of people. You can’t make everyone happy, but the end goal is to find what is going to be best to move us forward into the future. Even in our small facility at Walker, we have our pet part number schemes. We love them dearly. That doesn’t matter, ultimately. If it happens to be the right one to lead us forward and be the best for everyone, then that’s the one we’ll choose. If it’s not, we’ll discard it because we have to do what is right to grow OneMonroe and to keep OneMonroe focused and on track.

It sounds like you have to drive the process to reach a consensus. Once that consensus is arrived upon, then your mission is going to be to evangelize it and to bring everybody into the fold.

Preach it.

This brings us full circle to the whole role of podcasting in your organization. Potentially, you could circle back. Come up with a good name. Call me later, JR.

I’ll do that.

Roll this thing out. Maybe that has a place in your mix for your aforementioned evangelism.

Now that we have brought this full circle again, I do remember. I called it the OneM Radio Network. I have this little logo. I got a one and an M and all. We like to dream and come up with cool stuff.

I’d like to think some of these little finishing touches add some value. If nothing else, they’re a lot of fun to come up with.

They are indeed.

This whole data cleansing thing and bringing the circle back even fuller is how you started talking with Brian, thus you and I reconnected, which is great. I got to tell you this because I said at the top, the stars must have aligned, because you were on my mind anyway. I was thinking about the December episode of Fully Threaded. I wanted to redux the great little vignette that you did years ago. I replayed it many times, but not for a while. You know what I’m talking about.

I know exactly what you’re talking about. It’s The Gift. I can’t even remember the name of the temporary podcast I made in 2023, but I can remember The Gift.

It was a masterpiece.

I don’t know about that. It’s much like you talk about tuning in to your earlier episodes of Fully Threaded, where you’re tuning in to it almost in disgust, even though other people are absolutely thrilled by it. I tune in to that, and I just cringe. I’m like, “We’ve got to fix this.”

There are two things. 1) I don’t know how that could be possible because I loved it. It was great. 2) If you do feel that way, then I’m going to hopefully inspire you to come up with a sequel or better.

It was good for the time it was in. Everything we do is good for the time and the part of the journey that we’re in. As we grow, change, and hopefully get better, we try to make things better for that section of our journey. The stuff we’re doing now is very different than the stuff we did years ago.

When you put it like that, I’d also say that your view of what you’re doing, the significance of your work, is admirable, JR, because you are building a foundation for a pretty big future. These digital footprints that we leave are not going to blow away quickly. Hats off to you for taking this position so seriously and doing what you’re doing. I know it’s a big job. It’s a long job. You’ve got a lot ahead of you. OneMonroe is lucky to have a guy like you playing a leading role in it.

I don’t know about that, but I’m lucky to have OneMonroe. That’s not just lip service to the people who write my paychecks. This is a company that I have seen time and time again go above and beyond to care for its people and to do the right thing. Don’t get me wrong. They’re a large corporation, and large corporations have drawbacks just like every other. By and large, this is the largest corporation I’ve ever seen that tries to behave in a lot of ways like a mom-and-pop type facility.

There are a lot of things we have to do on a corporate level just because that’s the way we have to do business. When it comes to caring about people, OneMonroe is number one in my book. I know that particularly in my case. Without getting too crazy personal, I had open-heart surgery. It was an emergency thing. It came out of nowhere. I didn’t have a heart attack. Thank God I have no heart damage and all that good stuff, but I had a triple bypass.

Through that whole thing, I get text messages. In my hospital bed, I’m getting a text message from the president of the company. I’m getting a text message from the CEO. They’re like, “Take the time you need. Get better. We’ll see you when you get back. We’ve got your back. It’s all good.” Beyond that, our team at the Walker location, the former JHP facility, and this term gets whipped around a lot, but they’re rock stars.

That is indicative of OneMonroe at large. We try to ensure that everybody has the tools to succeed and to stand in, even if the technical manager for a product line is having heart surgery or happens to be out for a week. People can stand in the gap, make things happen, and keep it going. OneMonroe has done a phenomenal job of that. There are always areas we can improve on. There are always different locations that may need this or that, but by and large, man, it’s a great place to be.

That kind of support says a lot. You’re a good man, JR Prahl. I’m glad to reconnect with you.

I’m glad it happened the way it did. It was the thing with the data stuff. As I’m going through a first pass on a lot of this data, I reached out to Brian because I thought about the Scrubber. Brian and I have talked about the Scrubber many times over the years, but we only talked about it regarding the data that came from our system.

It’s because JHP used to be an FCH member for years.

That was directly connected. I remember going through the initial scrubbing because Brian had never dealt with clinch fasteners at the time. We’re talking about this, what that means, the different categories it could be done in, and how he adjusted the Scrubber to match. I’m like, “Why am I not talking to Brian about this?” I talked to Brian about it. You do this for other companies as well. This data scrubbing is not something like I’m the first person to come to you guys for that. People do it all the time. I don’t know. Maybe you guys do advertise it. Maybe you need to advertise it more.

Brian did a first pass on some parts. I have yet to go through it. Talking about the philosophy of how the Scrubber works and being able to program it on the front end to handle a lot of what we do, I see that potentially being quite assistance for us, especially as we make new acquisitions and have to massage their data into our system. It’s something that I don’t normally think of FCH for. Sadly, I should have. I apologize. My bad. I should be thinking about the people I’m friends with and what they do.

That’s on us.

I understand that, but here we are. I thought that was a neat thing to delve into with them. You can comment on this, too. Are you guys working on training your own large language model AI to help you guys with some of this stuff? Give us some insight into that. I want to know what the tea is on this AI stuff you guys are working on.

I’ll take that invitation because we’re in the process of early rollout. We brought a crude first demo to Vegas and showed a few people, but the Screwgle AI is a thing now. We have adapted all the various libraries and things from the Scrubber, which has been in the process of being built since 2006. They are now in modern LLMs or large language models for AI neophytes, but that’s what it is. This thing is doing some amazing things.

If you can imagine a ChatGPT-style interface, and you can throw any kind of fastener questions into it and get some reasonably good feedback. This is what we have now. It’s going to be on the street pretty soon. Thank you for asking about that. You gave me a chance to do a first pass at promoting this thing, but we’ll be doing a lot more of that coming up.

I hadn’t heard it. I wasn’t at the show, so I didn’t get to see the crude entry-level model. When Brian said that, I was thinking, “I’ve got to find out more about that.” Are you going to have a voice version of it, like ChatGPT, where you can talk to it? If you did, you should probably have Brian on there.

It’s AI. We could do whatever we want. We’ll have a JR Prahl version. We’ll have a Brian Musker version.

No, I just want to hear it when I ask for a fastener and be like, “Can you find this 1/4-20 socket head cap screw? It’ll say, “I can find that. Okay?” That’s what I want to hear it do. I want to hear it do Brian’s okay montage.

I’m thinking it could probably pick that up. We’ll have to do a Joe Greenslade edition.

There you go.

Anything’s possible these days. With that said, we’ll cut this one right here. It’s been great to talk to you again, JR. Let’s not wait so long until the next time. What do you think?

I agree, Eric. It’s been too long. We need to figure out something to, at a minimum, get some more contributions to your show. That’ll be good for everybody because the more knowledge we can bring to everybody, the better.

Your fastener public demands you, JR.

Yes, all two of them.

Thanks again. It’s JR Prahl of OneMonroe. We’ll be back with more Fully Threaded in a minute. Hang with us.

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Wrap-Up: Show Changes & Screwgle AI Update

Brian and Eric, back with you to wind down half an episode.

It’s part A.

How do you feel about this test so far?

It’ll work all right. We always have the two competing views. Some people like it long. People we know very well speed it up so they can get through it in a shorter time.

They want a more bite-sized morsel. We’ll see what happens. There’s the frequency as well. If we pop more shorter ones out, that might be the way to go. We’ll find out. We’ll see. A lot of changes are going to be coming up on the show and with the FCH Sourcing Network. We’ve got Project Luigi quietly bubbling in the background, but it’s soon to make a pretty big roar. That was cool that JR stumbled me right into promoting Screwgle, which is the AI piece of what we have coming.

Do you think you’re going to be able to accommodate him with the Brian Musker-enabled version?

There are two different versions. There’s that version, which is the Einstein version, the all-knowledgeable one. There’s one that is the Scrubber version.

He led me into discussing it through the Scrubber idea. I led him down the more forward-facing side of it, to be honest with you, because what you’re saying is true, Brian. There’s a ChatGPT front-facing version, which is very interesting. Behind the scenes, you’re doing amazing things with our technical team to make it into a useful data management or data cleansing tool, aren’t you?

Yes. It’s an attempt, and very successful, to replace our programmed Scrubber. That’s been in place for 15 or 16 years. This AI version has learned a lot. It is staggeringly intelligent and can pick out all sorts of things, including the most complicated of all things in the current logic, which is the size. The hardest thing to pick out of a string text is the size. Where does a part number end and a size begin? This AI has been extremely successful in being able to pick a size out of any old bit of text.

It’s great to see you guys making so much progress on this. I can’t wait until it’s in the wild.

Likewise for me.

Thanks to JR Prahl of OneMonroe for stirring me into that and for appearing on the show. Hopefully, we’ll be hearing a lot more from him in the future. Mike McNulty was focused as always. He welcomed Scott McDaniel with Martin Fastening Supply. Thank you, gentlemen. Great job. Thanks also to the sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio, who make it all possible. The title sponsors of Fully Threaded are Brighton-Best International, tested, tried, true, Brighton-Best, Goebel Fasteners, quality the first time, and Star Stainless Screw. Right off the shelf, it’s Star.

Fully Threaded is also sponsored by Buckeye Fasteners, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink, Fastener Supply Service, Fastener Technology International, INxSQL Software, J.Lanfranco, Solution Industries, 3Q, Inc., Volt Industrial Plastics, and Würth Industry North America. You know the email address, folks. It’s FTR@FullyThreaded.com. This time, more than ever, we want you to tell us what you think, and possible format ideas. Everyone’s got an idea. Now’s your chance to share it. If you don’t shoot us an email, check us out on LinkedIn, where I hang out. Brian lurks.

I’m a lurker.

We appreciate it a lot. We’ve been working hard, traveling around a little bit, and learning a lot. Until Episode 205, Part 2 comes out, this is Eric Dudas. For Brian Musker, we’re urging you to get out there and sell some screws.

See us next time.

Thanks for tuning in, everyone.