Being an Engineer

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Steven Szymeczek joins the podcast to share a career shaped by curiosity, hands-on learning, and a willingness to explore new opportunities. He traces his path from taking apart gadgets as a child to manufacturing crop-duster components early in his career, designing aircraft interiors, and eventually launching his own product development business. 
Steven and Aaron discuss the realities of moving from engineering into entrepreneurship, including learning how to communicate with customers, build a dependable network of manufacturing partners, price projects appropriately, and avoid overextending yourself to win the wrong work. Steven also shares the story of an early product-development client whose invention eventually appeared on Shark Tank, along with the lessons he learned about translating an entrepreneur’s vision into a manufacturable product. 
The conversation also explores the rapid evolution of additive manufacturing, from the unreliable desktop printers of the early days to today’s fast, accessible systems. Steven explains the differences between technologies such as Multi Jet Fusion and selective laser sintering, why polymer powder-bed fusion is becoming more accessible, and how rapid prototyping enables engineers to fail early, learn quickly, and improve designs faster. 
Finally, Steven describes his work at Boise State University, where he teaches additive manufacturing and leads a product development lab that gives students experience working on real client projects. From 3D-printed combat robots to medical devices and entrepreneurial product concepts, Steven is helping the next generation of engineers build practical skills, embrace experimentation, and enter their careers with meaningful hands-on experience. 
 
LINKS: 
Steven Szymeczek LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-m-szymeczek-0a33608a/ 
Aaron Moncur, host 
PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Attendee tickets are 50% off August 3-7 only. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/ 
Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

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Stanley C. Leong brings an unusual and highly relevant perspective to the world of engineering career development: he started as an engineer, then built a second career helping engineers manage the wealth and financial complexity that can come with technical success. He earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University before working in chip design roles at IBM and Agilent Technologies.  
That early engineering background still shapes how Stanley approaches financial planning today. As a private wealth advisor and founder of Wisdom Pointe Wealth Advisors, he focuses on working with engineers and executives at high-tech companies, using what his Ameriprise profile describes as an analytical and process-driven approach to financial planning. His expertise includes areas that are especially relevant to technical professionals, such as concentrated stock positions, workplace benefits, retirement income planning, tax-aware strategies, and behavioral finance.  
Stanley is also the author of Engineering Your Finances: The Tech Professional’s Roadmap to Financial Success, a guide written specifically for high-earning technology professionals. The book draws from his own experience in the tech industry, including the volatility he witnessed firsthand after being laid off shortly after buying his first home — a moment that helped shape his understanding of risk, planning, and financial resilience.  
For the Being An Engineer audience, Stanley’s story opens up a practical and often under-discussed conversation: how engineers can apply the same discipline they use in product development, systems thinking, risk analysis, and optimization to their own financial lives. His career is also a compelling example of how technical training can translate into a completely different profession while still remaining central to the way someone thinks, solves problems, and serves others. 
LINKS: 
Stanley C. Leong LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanleycleong/ 
Engineering Your Finances website: https://www.engineeringyourfinancesbook.com/ 
PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Attendee tickets are 50% off August 3-7 only. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/ 
Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

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Steve Riley brings a unique perspective to Being An Engineer because he is not an engineer by title, but he has spent his career working directly in the environments where engineering, operations, manufacturing, and continuous improvement have to come together. His background spans plant leadership, program management, operations management, engineering management, injection molding, medical products, carbon fiber manufacturing, dental equipment, and Lean/5S implementation. 
Steve is currently Chief Organization Officer at Bespoke, a company that helps continuous improvement professionals achieve tool control through custom shadowboards and tool organization systems. Bespoke’s work is focused on making 5S and Lean practices easier to sustain in real production environments, where missing tools, unclear standards, and inconsistent follow-through can quietly erode productivity over time.  
Earlier in his career, Steve held leadership roles at Innovative Composite Engineering, Forest Dental Products, Freeport-McMoRan’s Kinetics Metal Injection Molding operation, GM Nameplate, Nypro, and Precision Laboratory Plastics. Across those roles, he has worked close to the factory floor in areas such as program launches, operations leadership, high-volume molding, medical device manufacturing support, and press-side automation. 
For this episode, Steve wants to focus on continuous improvement and ways to make projects deliver long-term ROI. That is a valuable angle for engineers because many technical projects succeed in the short term but fail to become part of the organization’s daily operating system. Steve’s perspective centers on leadership behavior, standards, team ownership, and practical systems that keep improvement alive after the excitement of the initial project has worn off. A recent Lean Solutions Podcast episode featuring Steve highlighted this exact theme: Lean breaks down when standards become optional, and leadership behavior often matters more than the tools themselves. 
 
LINKS: 
Steve Riley's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevejriley/ 
Bespoke website: https://bespoketooltrays.com/ 
Aaron Moncur, host 
PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Attendee tickets are 50% off August 3-7 only. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/ 
Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

Send us Fan Mail
PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Attendee tickets are 50% off August 3-7 only. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/ 
Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

Send us Fan Mail
Heylands Lowry is a globally experienced continuous improvement and operational excellence leader with deep expertise in Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, and organizational transformation. Over the course of his career, he has helped companies across medical devices, aerospace, and manufacturing build sustainable systems that improve efficiency while strengthening culture and employee engagement. Known for his ability to connect with people at every level of an organization, Heylands focuses not just on process improvement, but on creating lasting behavioral and cultural change.  
Most recently, Heylands served as Director of Continuous Improvement at Intuitive, where he developed and deployed company-wide Lean and Six Sigma training initiatives that reached hundreds of employees across multiple events and workshops. His work included embedding DMAIC methodologies and Lean principles into core business processes while mentoring cross-functional teams on strategic improvement initiatives. One notable achievement involved reducing a surgeon payment cycle from three months down to fewer than five business days.  
Prior to Intuitive, Heylands spent nearly fifteen years at Edwards Lifesciences, where he held leadership roles focused on business excellence and Lean deployment. During that time, he led numerous high-impact initiatives, including productivity improvements, throughput increases, inventory optimization, and multimillion-dollar Six Sigma projects. His contributions earned him repeated recognition as Top Talent within the organization, a distinction reserved for fewer than ten percent of employees.  
Earlier in his career, Heylands led process improvement initiatives at Panasonic Avionics Corporation and served as a Six Sigma Champion at ITT Industries, where he was selected as one of only 48 employees out of 9,000 for advanced Six Sigma leadership training. Across these roles, he helped organizations streamline operations, prioritize high-value projects, and create scalable infrastructures for continuous improvement.  
In this conversation, we explore what it really takes to sustain continuous improvement efforts inside large organizations, why cultural buy-in matters more than most leaders realize, and how engineers and technical professionals can become more effective problem solvers, mentors, and change agents inside their teams. 
 
LINKS: 
Heylands Lowry LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heylands-lowry-64211a99/ 
Heylands Lowry website: https://www.intuitive.com/en-us 
Aaron Moncur, host 
PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Attendee tickets are 50% off August 3-7 only. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/ 
Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus