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Does your supplier risk profile account for what happens when a company’s leadership changes?

Most supply chain teams already have the most immediate indicators dialed in — financial stability, production capacity, quality certifications. And rightly so. But leadership continuity is a dimension that belongs in that same conversation, especially in the small-to-medium enterprise (SME) dominated landscape of CNC machining job shops.

As a third-generation, family-owned manufacturer, we think about this a lot. Our 70+ years of operation are the result of an intentional focus on continuity, and the result is something we’re proud of.

For supply chain professionals who are always looking to build a more complete picture of supplier health, succession planning status is a natural next addition to the framework you already have.

Six Succession Questions Worth Asking

These aren’t interrogation points, but conversation starters that help you understand the maturity of your supplier’s planning process. When approached from a framework of mutual growth, they demonstrate a customer who’s interested in their supplier’s long-term success:

1. Do you have a formal, documented succession plan in place for ownership and key leadership roles?
2. What specific processes are in place to develop and prepare identified successors?
3. Does a board or strategic planning group provide independent oversight to ensure alignment between current executives and the succession pipeline?
4. How is the financial transition — such as a buy-out or ownership transfer — structured to ensure stability during and after the handover?
5. What contingency plans exist for unexpected events, like the sudden departure or incapacitation of a key leader?
6. How frequently is the succession plan reviewed and updated to stay relevant to your business goals and market conditions?

You don’t need to work through all six in a single sitting or structure a separate meeting around them. They should fit naturally into your existing supplier review process.

What Good Answers Look Like

Suppliers with mature succession planning will answer these questions specifically and confidently. You might hear about identified successors who are already active in the business, written transition plans, or an advisory board that provides continuity of strategic direction independent of any one leader. These are genuinely positive indicators of organizational health.

If answers are vague or the topic hasn’t been formally addressed yet, that’s useful information too — worth noting in your supplier records and worth revisiting down the road. Many excellent suppliers are simply earlier in their planning process.

Tracking this doesn’t necessarily require a complicated scoring system — even a simple note on where a supplier appears to be in the process gives you meaningful context over time.

Why We Wrote This

Fielding critical questions like these from a customer is a challenge, but also an opportunity. As a supplier who’s taken succession planning seriously, we want to be asked.

We’ve put together a more comprehensive look at this topic — what the risks look like, how to evaluate where a supplier stands, and what a mature plan involves.

Read the full white paper here: Does Your Key CNC Machining Supplier Have a Succession Plan?

Or, browse our white paper library for more industry insights.

Iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

— Proverbs 27:17

Last Friday, Micron welcomed 25 professionals from 13 Lean manufacturing companies to tour our shop floor.

This Lean User Group strives to share and learn from its members’ successes in implementing Lean principles — an approach focused on maximizing customer value by continuously improving processes and eliminating waste. This month it was our privilege to host.

Two Systems We Shared

We shared two systems we developed in the spirit of Lean:

1. Our Management Review System:

We built this system to solve a familiar problem: critical management topics were falling through the cracks. What started as a way to meet ISO review requirements evolved into a sophisticated tool that now runs on Lean principles — essentially a just‑in‑time system for management attention.

The system is built around a visual board that lists every key management topic and its required review frequency. Some topics are reviewed weekly; others quarterly. A color‑coded status shows whether each item was completed on time or needed to be rescheduled.

The result was tighter, more purposeful meetings. Knowing every critical topic is addressed when it should be prevents drift. This brought the weekly meeting times from 3-4 hours to 90 minutes or less.

2. Employee Profiles:

If the Management Review System is about tightening focus, this next system is about widening it by getting to know the people we work beside every day.

We started with the Acumax Index, an assessment we’ve used for years as a pre‑employment tool. It gives us a detailed look at a candidate’s needs, decision‑making style, and communication preferences. But we realized its real value came after hiring: helping teams understand how to work better together.

So we asked ourselves: what if we took that insight and made it personal?

We created one‑page employee profiles that combine key Acumax characteristics with details the employee chooses to share — where they’ve lived and worked and outside hobbies.

Paired alongside the Acumax personality profile chart, these profiles serve as both an icebreaker and a communication bridge.

The early results have been encouraging. Conversations that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise are starting to surface.

The feedback and questions from this group showed us that no one can understand you quite like a peer. From laser-focused inquiries about management review throughput to curiosity about the Acumax, the level of insight underpinning the post-presentation questions humbled us.

From Quote Board to Shipping Dock

After presenting, we walked the group through our full value stream — from quoting through engineering, receiving, production, secondary processes, and final logistics. Nothing was roped off or shut down for the sake of the tour. Our visitors saw our day-to-day: the visual management boards, work‑in‑progress levels, routing and identification systems, 5S tool boards, and inventory management systems.

Sharpened by Curiosity

Continuous improvement requires some humility: a willingness to admit, no matter what stage you occupy, that something could be better. That’s true whether you’re a 38‑employee shop like ours or a much larger operation.

The professionals who visited us last Friday embodied that spirit. They came to see what a small manufacturer could teach them — and in doing so, they challenged us to dig deeper into our own systems. There’s something clarifying about explaining your work to peers who truly understand it. When someone asks a pointed question about why you chose a particular approach, you don’t just answer; you re‑examine.

That’s the value of a group like this. We didn’t open our doors to show off. We opened them to learn — and to be sharpened.

We’re grateful to every person who spent their day with us, and we’re already looking forward to the next site visit, where we can see another Lean expert’s systems in action.

At Micron, we have seen the quality of young men graduating from Harmel Academy of the Trades firsthand — they’ve worked alongside us on our shop floor. Their skill, work ethic, and character are undeniable. That’s why we are proud to support their mission with a donation of industrial equipment to their training facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Harmel Academy is more than a trade school. It’s a formation program for young men, blending rigorous, hands-on technical training with a rich humanities curriculum and spiritual development. This unique approach resonates deeply with us. Micron President Mike Preston, who serves on Harmel’s board of directors, sees this employer-educator partnership as an extension of Micron’s core purpose: “Their mission, culture, and spirit align with our own. We believe in building up individuals to strengthen our families, our community, and the American Dream.”

A Craftsman’s Playground: Harmel’s Unique Approach

Housed in a newly renovated facility on the Aquinas College campus, Harmel feels less like a classroom and more like a living, breathing workshop. Upstairs, student-built framing and plumbing installations and newly hung sheetrock show hands-on learning alongside facility improvement. Downstairs, advanced milling equipment and robotics stand ready for semester projects. Even when students are out on work placements at local industries, the space hums with purpose.

Named after Léon Harmel, a 19th-century French industrialist who championed just wages and safe working conditions long before they were standard, the school’s ethos is intentional. Founded in 2020, the program has quickly grown to 32 students and will expand to a three-year curriculum next year. Students gain expertise across a wide spectrum — robotics, welding, machining, electrical, plumbing, woodworking, CAD, and hydraulics — creating versatile and knowledgeable tradesmen.

But their education extends far beyond technical proficiency. According to Andy Beach, Harmel’s Director of Manufacturing Services, this is by design.

“Our students engage in humanities studies and faith formation that connect their work to the philosophy and theology behind it,” Beach explains. “They’re assessed not just on their technical output, but on their ability to articulate these ideas. Our goal is to create young men who are not only skilled with their hands but are also thoughtful, effective communicators.”

And they know how to have fun, too. The school year famously culminates in the “24 Minutes of Harmel,” a high-energy, real-life Mario Kart event featuring a timed endurance go-kart race with paintball dogfights.

Tools to Build the Future

To help Harmel students hone their precision and skill, Micron recently supplied two key pieces of equipment:

A Team Effort: Thank You, Erickson’s

A heartfelt thank you is in order. You can’t just “hand over” a surface grinder. Moving heavy industrial machinery requires specialized skill and expertise. That’s where our partners at Erickson’s stepped up.

Not only did their crew expertly handle the complex logistics of the relocation, but they also generously donated their time and resources to move and install the equipment at Harmel. We’ve trusted Erickson’s with our own machinery for years and seeing them share our commitment to supporting the next generation of tradesmen was truly inspiring. Thank you.

Unified in Purpose

Grand Rapids has a proud manufacturing heritage, going back to the detail-oriented work ethic of the furniture industry. That same precision and dedication now power the advanced manufacturing techniques that drive our company and our community forward.

By investing in institutions like Harmel Academy, we are investing in that legacy. While we are always thrilled when a Harmel graduate brings his considerable skills to a career in CNC machining, our support goes far beyond self-interest. We are investing in a way of life, in the character of our community, and in the skilled, well-rounded young men who will build its future.

At Micron, we believe that a stronger community benefits everyone. We are proud to stand with Harmel Academy and look forward to seeing what their students create with these new tools.