Episode Details

Contact Mauricio Barboza:

Email: mauricio@joncoind.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauricio-barboza-a6bb9558/

Lisa Ryan: Hey. It's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm really excited to introduce you to Mauricio Barboza today. Mauricio was born in San Jose, Costa Rica. He studied architecture at the University in Costa Rica and graduated with honors majoring in emergent manufacturing technologies.

Mauricio is currently the director of business development at Jonco industries. He is responsible for identifying new markets and emerging trends, developing new business opportunities and long-standing partnerships, and building and expanding their client base to drive forward their company's profitable growth ultimately. These are fancy words to say he helps their business grow. Mauricio, welcome to the show.

Mauricio Barboza: Thank you, Lisa, glad to be here.

Lisa Ryan: So share with us a little bit about your background, and really what led you to Jonco, and doing the things that you're doing now.

Mauricio Barboza: My background is actually in architecture. I went to architecture school, and I got a major in emerging technologies. I've always been passionate about the manufacturing industry about business development, product development, and, more so, Creative Problem Solving. That is what led me to Jonco. Jonco is a problem solver. Jonco industries is a multi-industry manufacturing and packaging company in Milwaukee.

We have a wide range of capabilities from fulfilling from powder filling and chemical filling. We have a large format digital printing. We do a lot of cutting - whether CNC, and computer-controlled, and water jet, and whatnot. One of the fascinating things about Jonco that I was attracted to is adapting to change and how they have grown as a business.

 As a matter of fact, one of the most recent things right now, and because of the pandemic, is we're taking on a shift. We're allocating one for facilities, one of our warehouse facilities, to develop a fulfillment center. There's a major need for fulfillment centers right now because everything's everything going on with the pandemic. Everybody wants everything right away, so the need for a fulfillment center is out there.

We're taking that shift, and that is one of what attracted me to Jonco.

Lisa Ryan: In our conversations leading up to the podcast, we talked a lot about the pandemic and some of the pivots that you made in making one product, and then just overnight changing to something else, based on what the customers were looking for. So what did that look like before and after, and really how were you able to change so quickly?

Mauricio Barboza: One of the fascinating things about the manufacturing industry right now is that everything changed. It's not the same as before the pandemic. It's never going to be the same it's never going to go back.

The pandemic pushed the manufacturing industry to adapt and embrace technology. I love the fact that it pushed manufacturers and forward thinkers to embrace technology at a faster pace. When we talk about technology, there are really three big players out there.

One is automation. Automation has been a while for decades. The biggest difference right now with automation and how things are moving is that it has become accessible. It has become accessible to smaller industries - from small companies to mid-sized companies. Think of it as a car. When cars came out, they replaced the horse. It was a novelty. Now, everybody's got a car. Similar things are happening with automation. Automation is just becoming available. It's easier to use. The interface is user-friendly, so it's one of the fascinating things that is happening right now.

Another thing is that the digital transform