Automation, Machining, and a Coal Mine: What Vertical Integration Buys You

Podcast: Lights Out: Technology and Automation Podcast by MakingChips · Nick Goellner

Opublikowano: 2026-10-09

Most automation conversations stop at the cell. This one keeps going, through a fab shop, a machine shop, a Department of Defense contract, and eventually a coal mine. Michael McHale runs PSA Systems, an automation integrator in Pennsylvania that also fabricates, machines, and delivers turnkey projects in house. He bought the business in 2016 with four employees and about $900,000 in revenue. Today it's 100 people, 65 engineers, and over $30 million, split across five verticals that all feed each other. That structure is the whole point of this episode. When PSA chases something that looks like a distraction, like reclaiming and...