As self-proclaimed “quality nerds,” Rocky Pinheiro and Mike Payionk of fastening solutions manufacturer PennEngineering speak about quality with exactly what nerd implies — passion, expertise, and arcane knowledge. 
Rocky, who holds a Ph.D. in management, spent 25 years in manufacturing before arriving at PennEngineering. Most of his career was in the automotive industry, including 13 years at various iterations of Fiat Chrysler. 
A Michigan native, Mike grew up surrounded by automotive manufacturing. Like Rocky, he spent most of the past two decades working in the industry with a focus on quality control.
Rocky and Mike love to geek out on data, which they use to help manufacturing plants operate at a higher level. In this episode, they discuss the key role automation plays in making it all possible, as well as their unique style of facilitating interdepartmental communication.
Themes discussed in this episode: 
How to sell the idea of automation to client organizations that may be initially reluctant to adopt it 
Rocky and Mike’s “U.N. diplomat” approach to communication and how they use it to break down silos
How automating their quality management system helped create a plant-level system for employees to step right into after COVID
Rocky and Mike’s “industry 4.0 journey” toward goals of improving technology and data gathering
Why automotive supply chain leaders need to acknowledge their blind spots to help improve quality issues 

Featured Guests: Name: Rocky Pinheiro
Title: Global Vice President of Quality, https://www.pemnet.com/ (PennEngineering)
What he does: Rocky ensures that organizational communication is ongoing and transparent between silos at PennEngineering, which is a decentralized organization. An auto industry veteran, he credits a brief stint working to implement lean methodology at Detroit Medical Center for his customer-centric approach.
Connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-rocky-pinheiro-55505ab/ (Linked)in
Name: Mike Payionk
Title: Quality Control Program Manager, PennEngineering
What he does: Mike manages PennEngineering’s Enterprise Quality Management System and is a stakeholder for its supplier onboarding and management. Also an automotive industry veteran, he helps ensure best practices are consistent in PennEngineering’s 11 manufacturing plants across the globe.
Connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-payionk-17540131/ (LinkedIn) 
Episode HighlightsTimestamped inflection points from the show


[1:45]  Forged in steel: PennEngineering’s Rocky Pinheiro is a quality expert with over 25 years of experience in heavy manufacturing, the bulk of it in the automotive industry. He spent 13 years at Fiat Chrysler. 


[3:20] Early exposure:  Rocky’s colleague Mike Payionk also represents a wealth of experience in automotive manufacturing, with the better part of two decades spent in quality control. 


[4:53] Same process, different applications: Automation is crucial to PennEngineering’s work. It provides critical lead time to supply automotive clients, who have very specific deadlines, processes, and systems for manufacturing their products. Consumer electronics clients rely on automation to shorten the time it takes to develop the initial versions of their products from ideation to build. 


[5:53] The buy-in: Automation must be implemented in order to work. Rocky says end users must be involved and invested in the automation process from the very beginning. 


[7:16] Key automation category: Automating the CAPA (Corrective and Preventive Action) system made the most dramatic difference for Rocky and Mike’s team, in terms of automating nonconformances data. “It felt like overnight we went from not understanding what was happening on the plant floor to completely understanding what was happening on the plant floor,” Mike says. 


[10:26] Clear communication, hard data: Automation enabled one of