Veryable laborforce, end your labor shortage excuses with Patrick Dipple

Steve Doyle (: 00:00

Welcome back to this episode of blue collar BS, Brad. How you doing today, my friend?

Brad Herda (: 00:05

I am fantastic, Mr. Stephen Doyle. It is a great day in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. The humidity is gone. The sun is out. The rain is gone. And it is what we would call ideal summer weather.

Steve Doyle (: 00:13

Duh, yeah. It is.

Steve Doyle (: 00:19

It is perfect weather out. It's not hot, not humid. Some people can even go golfing in this weather. It's great. It's just fantastic.

Brad Herda (: 00:27

Yes. Yes. Some people will be going golfing in this weather tomorrow. Yes. Yes, they will. And for when his errors in January is going to say what is going on here, but that's okay. No. Nope. November by by November, the clubs are in the basement.

Steve Doyle (: 00:30

you

Steve Doyle (: 00:36

You'll still golf in January. I know you will. The weather's right. You'll be out there. yeah. Come on. If it's...

Brad Herda (: 00:48

I am not that guy that needs to golf every month of the year. That is not me, but during during the opportunity I'm going to go hard

Steve Doyle (: 00:55

That's awesome. That's awesome. So who do we have on the show today, Brad?

Brad Herda (: 00:59

So our show today got introduced. don't remember how it was introduced probably through LinkedIn through a mutual connection somewhere somehow. We have Patrick Dipple who is a 20 year manufacturing guy, supply chain, operational roles, public companies, fortune 50 private and Martin. He's done all sorts of things and now he's part of this company called variable that provides manufacturers with on demand.

resources to support themselves in their manufacturing and or warehousing structure. And when I talked to him about what's going on and what he's doing, could, I'm so glad to have him here because this model is something that everybody's going to need to adapt to in order to make their business successful for the longterm. And I am grateful that Patrick is giving us some time today to talk about the variable process and what he's seeing across the different generations. So Patrick, welcome to the show.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 01:57

Gentlemen, thank you for having me on.

Steve Doyle (: 01:59

Yeah, it's definitely a pleasure. So before I forget, Patrick, can you let everybody know which generation you identify with fit in with?

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 02:07

Yes, so I'm the very tail end of Gen X, so.

Brad Herda (: 02:12

Steve claims that too, just so you

Steve Doyle (: 02:15

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (02:18.592)

I think there's aspects that I identify with, with boomers and millennials and all of that. But I'll claim Junax was a great

Steve Doyle (: 02:28

Rock on. Rock

I love it. Just own it. Just own

Brad Herda (: 02:36

So did you, so you're in Indianapolis area right now, is that correct? Did you grow up in that area as well or

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 02:40

I am, I am.

Did not, I'm from St. Louis originally. Moved all over. I am, I am. We're trailing the Brewers right now in July, but maybe we'll turn

Brad Herda (: 02:45

Shit I mean that means you're Cardinals guy and that's a

Brad Herda (: 02:54

Your that organizations is the pain in the ass because at the end they always come through I respect the hell out of them. Don't get me wrong I love their fans. They're they're knowledgeable fans are much better than campus fans But

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 02:58

Hahaha.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 03:06

You beat me to it. I was going to say at least you're not a Cubs fan,

Brad Herda (: 03:09

Yeah, so but anyhow, we can continue on this friendly conversation. You're on the friendly side of baseball rivalry.

Steve Doyle (: 03:16

That's awesome. That's awesome. So Patrick, how did you find Variable and what kind of helps fit that passion that you have?

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 03:28

Yeah, so I've been a manufacturing guy my whole career, lived on the shop floor, loved every moment of it. I'd say I'm unique in the fact that I think I knew what I wanted to do very early on. So I'm an industrial engineer by degree, but wanted to find the quickest way from point A to point B. Loved manufacturing, getting my hands dirty, being able to see and feel the improvements on the shop floor.

Steve Doyle (: 03:48

Mm

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 03:55

get to learn from the 40 year old veteran who knows how to do it the right way and try to figure out how to translate that and tap into that knowledge and really work with them to figure out how to do that a little bit better. So that's been my passion. I'm a XGE guy. I worked with our CEO, both straight out of college making dry type transformers in Fort Wayne, Indiana. That's how we met.

We've been in in a variety of different manufacturing and operations leadership roles and we sort of came full circle. He went on it his own to create this concept and the first time he told me about it, I said, that's the tool that would have been able to help me in every single role, in every single plant. I would have been able to do three times as much in half the amount of time. that's where...

That's sort of how I connected with Variable and sort of taps into all the things that I was passionate about. Now I just have the opportunity to do that with thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of people coming in to the manufacturing space

Brad Herda (: 05:06

Yes, that is. So, so give our audience a little bit more detail than what we gave in the introduction as to what variable does what they do and who they serve.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 05:15

Sure, so Variable is a solution suite. We are an innovation and technology company. I'd say the biggest and sort of first solution we created was the on -demand labor marketplace. And this is exclusively for manufacturing, distribution, and logistics. That's our core competency. We're never going to be anything else. That's where all of our team members came up through. That's what we understand.

Those are the industries that have inherent variation day to day, week to week, month to month. And when we can look at how to solve that and how to optimize it, the business wins. The business grows. The industry grows. And we just keep pulling more and more people into this industry. And that's really, really important for all the obvious reasons, but such a huge part of our U .S. economy and GDP

We're seeing that skyrocket as more and more businesses being reshored back to the United States. So I don't think that there's anything more important to the U .S. than U .S. manufacturing. And if you make it, you got to move it. And you need people to do that. You need the skills to be able to do that. You need the tools to be able to do that. And on the business side, you have to figure out how to be more competitive in how you do that so you can compete against China, so you can compete against Mexico.

Steve Doyle (: 06:27

Mm -hmm.

Brad Herda (: 06:28

Correct.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 06:42

so that we can make the products that we use in the US right down the street and everybody gets a benefit

Brad Herda (: 06:52

You are singing a great tune there, We, we, we appreciate that. So, so when you call, talk about this on demand labor pool, so you have an organization, a warehousing organization, a manufacturer of widgets. They come to you, they say, Hey, we need operator eight or on a shear. We might need a, somebody to run, material movement in our facility. need.

Steve Doyle (: 06:55

That is right.

Brad Herda (: 07:21

pick, pack and ship. What are the things that you are getting this on -demand labor to

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 07:28

We do it all. I'd say why we do it varies company to company. How we go about doing it varies company to company. But maybe I could answer one of your early questions with a little bit more context about the tech itself. we are an on -man lever marketplace. That's a two -sided marketplace for operators and opportunities that are coming through the business. So

cliche as it is and it's overused, but from a marketplace perspective, it's just easy to understand. It's the Uber of manufacturing and logistics labor. And so this marketplace gives operators the ability to see opportunities from a variety of different manufacturers and distributors in their area or as they travel around the country, looking at those opportunities and to be able to use their skills and plug in and do that work for them. On the business side, there's

tremendous amount of data, analytics. Really what we're trying to get them to do is understand their volume and let volume dictate what their needs are. This isn't replacing full -time employees, but it is building sort of experienced bench strength to support their full -time employees and to support the business taking that next big order, helping break a bottleneck on a work center, trying to figure out how to deal with summer seasonality.

and maybe smooth that out. Those are the kind of things that eat into their margins, tremendously impact lead time, which is a huge part of what's important to the end customer. I everybody wants it their way and they want it yesterday. So businesses have to figure out how to adapt and do that. And labor touches every single part of the business. So it can be a competitive advantage, but what are your options?

over staff and be prepared for what might happen, but that's really, really expensive. And typically, you know, at the expense of the full -time employees that are working there, or you can understaff, turn away opportunities, extend lead times, or take them and just destroy your service scorecard. And, you know, you might just never get that customer back. But that supply demand imbalance is really what we're trying to solve.

Steve Doyle (: 09:23

Mm -hmm.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 09:46

in our marketplace does that on both sides of that equation.

Brad Herda (: 09:51

And who are, so on the employee side of it, what are, are you getting, are you getting younger, older? Are you skewing in any direction or are you seeing kind of a, just a blended 25, 25, 25 % mix across your age brackets?

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 10:13

Yeah, our demographics have been pretty consistent, meaning they haven't changed over time, but they are heavily skewed toward the younger generation. So about 85 % of our operators on the platform are in that Gen Z and millennial bucket. 85%. Yeah, we got about 12 % who are Gen X like me, and then we've

Brad Herda (: 10:29

Use it 85

Steve Doyle (: 10:32

Wow.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 10:39

You know, the rest of that is is baby boomers. We've got a tremendous number of experienced manual machinists who are retired and looking to get out of the house, maybe escape a hunting deal. Yeah, a couple bucks in their pocket. But, you know, on the same side of the coin, we've got a an extremely talented welder down in Texas. He's passionate about his YouTube channel. He can.

Brad Herda (: 10:49

Just want to make sure their marriage lasts.

Steve Doyle (: 10:50

Yep.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 11:07

work whenever and wherever he wants on there. There's about three or four businesses that he services. He fixes some really complex scraps, saving the company a ton of money, and they just bring them in every couple weeks. And he dedicates more time to his YouTube channel and his passion. And there's 1 ,000 different stories of why people are coming to our platform and what they need.

Brad Herda (: 11:31

Well, and this is where this is, this is where it gets to be very interesting, right? Because that on demand piece to it and the ways you can make money today are very different than particularly in the manufacturing sector, which is a much older, slower business to adapt to current practices of, well, they have to be here all the time. They have to be in the parking lot at 4 a .m. They have to be here past 4 p .m. They all these, no, they don't. You can still get everything done and maybe they only want to be there two days a week.

And that should be OK because they've got other things they want to do and other passions and other things to make that person whole. Where the job that they are Brian Smith, not I'm a welder and my name is Brian Smith.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 12:14

I had a very talented machinist who worked for me when I ran a precision machining company and he asked if he could take two months off to go hike the Appalachian Trail. I'm like, well, I don't know. I'm not sure can hold your job. And he just started laughing at me and walked out and said, see in two months. He knew I wasn't going to be able to find somebody skilled that quick. And he was in control. I mean, it was fine. Like we made it work, but that was sort of an aha moment for me

you know, as a business leader, I'm not in control of my workforce. There's some people who want need that full time, but more and more of the population wants control, wants flexibility, wants the autonomy to be able to develop themselves and their own skills in a way, in a way that makes sense for them and where they want to

Steve Doyle (: 13:07

Yeah, and that's so important today. And it's we're seeing it as more important for all generations kind of leaning into that. Whereas before it really was kind of like the the faux pas, you will, of saying, Hey, yeah, I want to go take that much time off to go walk the Appalachian Trail. It was like almost unheard of for people to do. And now it's now it's kind of shifted to almost expected that people are going to take that extended period of time off.

And employers are kind of like, what do I do? So this option that you guys have is very, very intriguing to companies from that perspective of having a flexible workforce like that. So what are you guys seeing with the younger generation? have 85 % younger generation. Why is this so attractive to

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 14:03

think it comes down to like once needs, right? So what they need is flexibility. What they need in some cases, especially our younger operators, they need money right away. So we pay them the very next day. So cash in pocket, very, very quick. Those two things are very, very important in becoming more of a must have. If you want me, I'm going to need this. And that's part of meeting them where they are.

those younger generations. think once what we're seeing thematically is operators, they want feedback. They want to be able to prove themselves and what they can do. They, I guess more than anything else, they want a chance. They want a chance to be able to prove themselves. And I mean, this is no different than any other industry or any shop, you know, not everybody's going to be an all star.

There's different types of work, right? You've got a machine operator, you've got a five axis milling guru, you could throw a drawing and a chunk of metal at, and you can program on the fly and make it happen. There's a wide spectrum of skill set. And when you have a marketplace with over a million operators plugged in, you're going to be able to find what you need. So I sort of laugh at this whole labor shortage concept because we don't see that.

Even in our smaller markets, we're seeing six bids for every single opportunity. And some of our more mature markets, we're seeing 19 or 20. So, you know, it just goes to show there is not a shortage, but there is a lack of creativity and innovation on the business side to figure out how to tap into

Brad Herda (: 15:42

Wow.

Steve Doyle (: 15:46

Mm -hmm.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 15:53

That's one of the biggest challenges I see, because, you know, ironically enough, when this concept was started, we thought, man, this is going to be such a cool idea. Manufacturers are going to be lined up around the block and we're going to need to go out there and sell to the individual operators. And it's been 180 degrees the other way. Operators are flocking to

with various skills. They're bringing all the skills and experience they have. We've got others who want to be in this industry, but they are excluded from it in more of a traditional sense. And the work that I'm doing and my teams are doing is we're out there talking to those manufacturers, sort of showing them what could be, helping them really with an operational strategy. you look at, you know, the just the business in general, you've

business strategy, am I taking this company? Where would I like to go? And then you've got a bunch of people and assets and machines and sometimes material. And then in the center is typically a lack of operations strategy, know, like operator supervisors are running around trying to figure out who's going to be able to work tomorrow or Y numbers or X instead of Y, you know,

looking at a report, a million other things instead of doing the job that they really should be, which is focused on product, focused on customer, focused on development, focused on getting better than your competition. So you're actually in the driver's seat and you can pick and choose what mix fits your shop, where you want to grow, know, what's coming around the around the next curve. you know, helping the operations leaders

Steve Doyle (: 17:25

Mm -hmm.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 17:46

do their job and think through, that's what we're focused on is the operational strategy. And like I mentioned early, labor touches every single part. One of the biggest drivers in your P &L, one of your biggest levers on how quick you can get product to a customer. One of your biggest accessibility liability from the scope of this project.

Brad Herda (: 18:03

just need a it's a hundred hour job. It's a hundred hour job. I just need a hundred people. We'll be fine. We'll get it out in our no big deal.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 18:12

And you do it every day, every week. And what's that definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? So we're trying to break that mold.

Steve Doyle (: 18:21

right.

Brad Herda (: 18:24

So Uber for manufacturing and warehousing and logistics. I love that analogy on

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 18:30

Let me, if you don't mind, Brad, one thing, how are you going to develop yourself at Uber? Are you going to drive in a better part of town? Like that's the only real difference. know, operators get exposed to a bunch of different skills that build on themselves. It's almost like a choose your own apprenticeship program. What are the skills I need? What are the businesses that are offering that? How, as an operator, can I take control of getting where I want to be?

Brad Herda (: 18:39

Right.

Brad Herda (: 18:59

So how do you, I don't want to use the word gamify, but I'm going to use gamify. So how do you gamify the opportunity for, like you got the guy you said that's in goes and does all the repair welding. He's, he's really good at what he does and how, how do the, how do the organizations then bid to get his services or how vice versa? What's, what's that summary kind of look like?

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 19:24

Sure. business is to create an opportunity and that creates a push notification to the entire network. They're in control of the pay. We've got 10 macro level skill sets that are specific to manufacturing, logistics and warehousing. Within that there's sub skill sets. Those are self -identified by the operator from an experience level. But every op that they work in the platform gets loaded and they're sort

creating their blue collar LinkedIn profile that all the other businesses can see. So we've got reliability. We have a rating on attitude, efficiency, proficiency, safety, much better than sort of a snap character assessment in an interview if they even get one of those. You've got data to be able to make a decision. with, you like a set of million operators, there's ways to be able to filter on skill sets.

Steve Doyle (: 20:14

Stay bright.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 20:22

to be able to filter on proximity to your shop. And that it's a marketplace with 10 ,000 operators coming on every week. What that looks like today might look a little bit different in a month from now. So again, it's just sort of looking for what problem are we solving for in the shop? And how do I go find the right tools out there in the marketplace to be able to accomplish

Brad Herda (: 20:49

What I really like out of this whole thing is that we're providing young adults the opportunity to see many different things and see what works for them, what fits for them, what makes them tick without it being the, well, you're a job hopper. You're only here for two months. Well, I was only here for two months because I hated

Steve Doyle (: 21:02

Mm -hmm.

Brad Herda (: 21:17

It was terrible environment. It was no fun when I went to this one. Well, I hated that too, cause that guy was an asshole or it was dark, dirty and dangerous all at the same time. And I want to keep all my fingers and toes. it gives them the opportunity to see and create reality and come up through learning to have a, a, a different framework of common sense and understanding where you take

Steve Doyle (: 21:19

Mm

Brad Herda (: 21:45

40 year old, the 40 year veteran in an organization. He's only seen that organization and now you're creating opportunity. So this will be the challenge for you leaders out there. The challenge will be as these kids go through that and they finally get that place where they want to stay. Now you got to manage the fact that they've seen all these things already and they may have lots of ideas. So now you got to temper those ideas. Do you see that with your, with your employee, the folks that are bidding on jobs, trying to go in and change the organizations they're trying to work for?

on that bid process or here's an idea and do it differently or is it strictly hit the path, do the thing, get

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 22:25

I think we get to see both there. mean, on our platform, we have the opportunity to more or less like sort of pay by hour, but we also have piece pricing. So for those businesses that have, you know, well -defined engineering standards, you know, like, what do do? That's the definition of a best practice, right? You understand somebody else figures out a better way to do that. And you can see that in the data. And now I want to know how, you know,

Sheila on second shift is, you know, 177 % my my full time operator has been here for 10 years. How is she doing that? We see that all the

Steve Doyle (: 23:01

That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome.

Brad Herda (: 23:05

Very cool.

Brad Herda (: 23:10

So Patrick, how do people get a demo? How do they find out more? How do they see this and how do they find out to get involved? What areas they're in? Whether they're an employee or an employer, what do they do to find

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 23:27

Yeah, we've got a ton of information on both sides of that equation. So I would say head to our website, www .variableops .com. And that's variable, V E R Y, A B L E. Love that, you know, little play on variable and our intent to variable -ize labor costs for a business. But that website is great. Works for both sides. You get to see

what that looks like as an operator, as a business, you get to see case studies, you get to see different use cases, you get to hear from people that are using the platform and think about how that could apply and what that could drive from a results perspective for your business.

Brad Herda (: 24:12

Yeah. I believe Emily showed me a little bit of a demo sneak peek of things when I met with her after you and like, this is really freaking cool. The, the opportunity that exists for when you're on that cusp of paying too much over time or not enough resources or whatever that might look like or hunting season, what it's really going to force organizations to do is become

because they're going to have to bring in people who don't know your company and do your processes. And they got to get that stuff down so we can bring in those folks. And that's what gets me excited because that's what I love to do. I will. That's what I really enjoy is, Hey, let's get shit ready so anybody can come in and do the

Steve Doyle (: 24:46

Mm -hmm.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 24:52

Yeah. we've, mean, Milwaukee, for instance, is a relatively new market that's growing quick. We've got businesses that, you know, check us out, call us up, we come into their shop and two hours later we have ops posted for the very next day. One of the things that people love to see is we post an op and they'll see in real time bids happening as, as we're working on a different building out a different op template. And we see that quite a bit. Steve, I know you're in Michigan.

I mean, think of the ups and downs of the automotive market. know, the OEM shuts down and that impact, that ripple impact all the way down that supply chain. So we've seen businesses stop tomorrow and then start back up and they're at full capacity, you know, like whenever they need to start back up. So pretty powerful for the businesses.

Steve Doyle (: 25:30

Mm -hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 25:36

yeah.

Brad Herda (: 25:49

It's very cool. I was super stoked to, to hear about the story and, understand what it is. And that's why we wanted to get you on here to be able to share that information and, Steve, what do you got? Last question up to

Steve Doyle (: 26:03

Last question. So with the workforce, that 85 % being the Gen Z and the millennial, what would you say to them, for those that are kind of on the fence and struggling, looking around, what would you say to them to encourage them to look at the trades?

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 26:22

So there's so much dignity in the work that we do in this environment. mean, being able to make something. Our country isn't going to survive as a service organization. And as we continue to pull more and more of this work back, those opportunities are only going to be able to grow. So explore it. Find your passion.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 26:50

when I used to recruit and work with vocational schools to bring them into my machine shop, there was nothing cooler than being able to show them like a fairy that went into a SpaceX Falcon 9 or all these things. So the products that you see every single day all had to be made. And you get to put your stamp on that. Your idea can help make them a little bit better.

Steve Doyle (: 26:54

Mm -hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 27:05

Mm

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 27:11

You get to learn something and build upon that. So I know my passion might be getting in the way, but there's nothing more exciting than manufacturing and the trades and a tremendous amount of dignity. And it can do a lot for you and your family. And I guess just to end, I'd say you no longer have to do that in the same way that it's always been done. So you're not trying to decide between taking care of your family or putting food on the table. There's an option where you can do both.

Steve Doyle (: 27:41

right on.

Brad Herda (: 27:41

Yeah. And, and kicking the, can't find good people excuse to the curb because it's, it's just an excuse.

Steve Doyle (: 27:47

Correct.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 27:48

You send them anybody my way and I'll prove them wrong.

Steve Doyle (: 27:52

Ooh, challenge accepted.

Brad Herda (: 27:53

I,

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 27:54

As long as they're one of our 40 markets around the US.

Brad Herda (: 27:57

Anchorage might be a little tough to hold.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 28:00

Gotta put a little asterisk there.

Steve Doyle (: 28:02

right? That's all good. Well, Patrick, thank you very much for joining us today on the show. We greatly appreciate it. And in your story is just fantastic.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 28:12

appreciate the time and keep telling your story. It's great to listen to. I go, we got a lot of people at Variable listening in now too.

Brad Herda (: 28:19

Thank you, appreciate that a lot and we will talk again soon.

Steve Doyle (: 28:20

Yeah, we do.

Patrick Dippel - Veryable (: 28:24

Great, take care gentlemen.

Brad Herda (: 28:25

Thanks.