Raised in Carmel, Indiana, a teenage Susan Carlock found inspiration for her first career while interacting with a nurse in the emergency room. “It was an ‘Ah-ha’ moment of, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to care for people. I want to help people feel safe and live a better life.’”
Carlock Graduated from Marian University and worked her first job in the ER at St. Vincent Hospital. She spent 12 years taking care of others in her healthcare career, working in both emergency and home health care.
Her father, Stephen Murray, worked in manufacturing throughout his career. In 1990, Murray left corporate America and purchased Twoson Tool, a manufacturing company mostly focused on appliance manufacturing. He renamed the company Mursix—an homage to the six Murray family members—and as the appliance industry transitioned to utilizing more electronics technology, Mursix began manufacturing components to support other business sectors with specialized parts.
When Carlock left the healthcare industry, she spent ten years at home raising her two sons. Carlock realized she “absorbed manufacturing speak and prowess ‘through osmosis’ at the dinner table,” and decided to join the family business, working alongside her brother, Todd Murray.
When asked about working with her brother, she said the transition was easy and pointed out, “We can agree to disagree for sure,”—an essential part of working closely with family.
Challenging the “Good Old Boys” Club
Carlock knew she wanted to exemplify a different way of leading the company in her new role. She recalled thinking, “It’s not Dad’s manufacturing business anymore.” She recognized that the company’s culture felt like a classic “good old boys” manufacturing setting and dedicated her time and energy to changing that.
Coming from healthcare to manufacturing, she wanted to focus on the people. She started in health and wellness in the business, which also (not surprisingly) lowered their insurance premiums. As she built personal relationships with her colleagues, Carlock segued that into “Wow, people are telling me things that I’m not sure our leaders know about that’s going on on our floor.” She focused on empowering people to share their thoughts, suggestions, and concerns.
“The hierarchy of our org chart drives me nuts. With our operators and people on the floor, there’s been this stigma of being afraid to speak up because, ‘I’ll get fired.’ It’s really a stigma in manufacturing as a whole.”
Carlock focused on helping her leaders treat their teammates empathetically, approaching conversations with a nurturing attitude to make them feel safe at work. “People need to be able to come to you with a problem and not feel threatened. They need the tools they need to do their job. And they need their leaders to listen to them.”
She began engaging in more open dialogue with the director of HR and other leaders to learn more about how she could help the company. Carlock immersed herself in business development and sales while still finding opportunities to help their people and their business grow and prosper.
Beyond Her Four Walls
Carlock joined organizations focused on strengthening and growing Indiana’s manufacturers like Conexus Indiana and the Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). She made it a point to visit other manufacturing facilities across the state and connect with other women who are manufacturers. “They have a voice through me. A lot of manufacturers can’t get out of their four walls.”
Carlock believes part of her leadership role is to bring balance and objectivity to the business and “making sure we’re eliminating the tunnel vision… like safety issues on the floor. When you look at it every day, you might not see the same problems.” She learned how to operate the business… the books, the presses and machines, hiring, and how to make payroll. “I put myself in a lot of uncomfortable spots so I can learn and grow.”
Carlock focused on, “Getting out there and absorbing things and bringing them back to the team.” For instance, she learned how and why they should begin adopting robots, cobots, and vision systems, and through her efforts, Carlock’s team won a $250,000 grant for defense digital thread testing. This allowed the company to get more involved in the defense sector and the digital revolution—Industry 4.0.
Carlock advocates that opportunities like these are for manufacturers in many stages of their business growth and capabilities. Her advice? “Don’t try to speak like you know the digital thread and you know what you’re talking about. Speak from your ‘Why’ and your experience in manufacturing and how you can help solve problems.”
A Pivot into a New Venture
“May 23rd of 2020, I was pacing my living room, trying to figure out, as a nurse and a business owner, how we can make a difference with COVID. I was either going to keep our people employed at Mursix or go down the street to the ER and go work there.”
Face shields became an important need, so Carlock called her “prototype guy,” and he built a prototype in an hour. Within six weeks, her team was manufacturing millions of face shields, keeping all her Mursix teammates employed and offering work to over 300 temporary workers hired in outside warehouses.
This “gave everyone a purpose to contribute to helping people in the global pandemic. We had volunteer pilots coming to the Delaware County Airport, taking boxes and delivering them nationwide. It was a very impactful bonding time in our company to be able to contribute to keeping people safe. At a time when no one felt like they had any control, we had control over helping keep people safe.”
On June 1, 2020, due to Mursix’s ability to pivot and improve its operational agility in a matter of days, Carlock decided to start a brand new venture. The intention was to work with entrepreneurs in the R&D and prototyping phases of their inventions. Pivot Manufacturing was born.
Carlock has been working with one female entrepreneur with a medical device idea, Turn Buddy Systems, which prevents bed sores for bed-bound patients. After a year and a half, they became FDA registered, which was a first very big win. Now they are taking the product through all development stages and ready for market in a partnership with Marian University.
“I would have never known what this product could be if I was never a nurse,” Carlock reflected.
She is working on another startup in the AI world that has gotten a lot of attention. Carlock is using Mursix as the beta to solve the knowledge transfer gap for skilled workers. The app is named Murray—an homage to her father, who passed away six years ago. When training people to take on those skilled trade roles, trainees can talk to “AI Murray” and ask it questions, sourcing the institutional knowledge her colleagues provided. “What will manufacturing do to replace the skill that is retiring? Murray is critical to our future.”
Carlock expanded that this would not only affect manufacturing but many other industries. She cited field experts when they’re working in the field and trying to repair something. “They have to call into a call center rep who thumbs through a manual to find guidance on how to fix something. Now they can just call AI Murray and get advice [sourced] from a skilled tradesperson with 40 years of knowledge.”
Carlock’s enthusiasm for the collaboration opportunities between Mursix and Pivot Manufacturing overflowed. “I have this amazing opportunity where I can help bring in new business and revenue growth, but on the other side, I can help what I call a fleeting skilled workforce and really solve those problems for manufacturing globally. Just knowing that we can create a future that can help bridge the gap of this knowledge transfer of skilled trades is huge!”
Supporting Other Women in Manufacturing
“Communicating and bringing your ‘why’ to people is really important to help them figure out their why and where they can make an impact. You want to inspire. You want to have empathy. But you also want to help women to get put up on a pedestal because so many are uncomfortable doing that themselves or they don’t know where to start.”
Carlock actively empowers other women to speak up and do the same thing. One piece of advice she has for other women in business: “Claim your space. And don’t be afraid to say what needs to be said. You will get challenged. You will get pushback. But stay the course.” She recalled entering the business as a strong leader and being labeled a bitch. “I was so surrounded by men, I had to make myself my own mentor. No one here wanted to put me on a pedestal because I was making so many changes.”
As Carlock continued on her journey to change the company culture and put a stop to the “good old boy” mentality, she focused on holding people accountable. “I really have said to the guys, ‘The bitch is in town, so if this is how I have to be to get things done…’ Changing a culture is not easy.”
As she reflected on her journey, Carlock shared another poignant piece of advice. “I think when you grow up in a business, it becomes your culture and how you’ve always done it. Bringing objectivity into your business is one of the best things you can do—Bringing in outside opinions and new ways to solve problems and do things.”
She encouraged other business owners to, “Open your business to diverse opinions and viewpoints other than yours. Allow yourself to be challenged. Entrepreneurs think they know everything because it’s their product. You’re not going to go anywhere with that attitude.”
She emphasized how important it is to be open to constructive feedback. “I think it’s easier for women to do that with each other than to do that with a man. Maybe because women are [more capable] to not feel threatened or to feel safe getting that constructive feedback.”
Carlock ended our conversation by reiterating her passion to promote and inspire other women. “That’s huge. And ‘we,’ meaning all women should be doing that. There’s enough to go around.”
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