Northwest Aerospace News August | September 2020 | Page 27

Russ Nielsen, director of business development said, “Our
company thrives in highly regulated industries like aerospace.
It’s these stringent types of environments in which high level
dependability provides value to our customers.”
Mike Brown, CEO, is focused on quality and delivery metrics,
and the team members are engaged with this focus. He
said, “At Aero-Plastics, we don’t just monitor our quality and
delivery metrics with our major customers. We track everything
related to every shipment we make.” With millions of
parts being produced each year, Aero-Plastics works hard to
ensure high-quality parts, on-time shipping and other critical
items, measured in-house using a system called the “Dependometer.”
Brown added, “We measure whether we were perfect or not
on every shipment. If a customer did not receive a certification
for material that was used to produce their products, and
they were expecting one, we were not perfect.” He elaborated
that while he does feel that perfection is elusive, and this is
a company that prides itself on humility, it is still critical for
them to measure how many chances they have to offer a perfect
shipment to their clients versus how many were actually
perfect.
Brown said, “Our quest for perfection simply feeds our continuous
improvement.”
Evidence of Aero-Plastics commitment to dependability is
reflected in their supplier awards. They are one of only five
companies in Boeing’s global supply base that has earned
Boeing’s Performance Excellence Award (BPEA) for 12 consecutive
years. They have also been recognized as a Boeing
Supplier of the Year three times.
Lily Weems, quality manager, feels that because of company
leadership, team members and culture, they are successful.
Weems said, “Our leadership is laser-focused on achieving
our strategic objectives and helping us build financial
stability, business growth, and team member development.
As a smaller company, we are very nimble and work well
together as a team to solve problems quickly.”
Robert Haley, program manager, reflects the sentiment
of his co-worker by saying, “Our company culture
encourages growth in knowledge and abilities.
Aero-Plastics also encourages team members with education
and training opportunities. Thorough execution
of strategic planning reaches all team members to ensure
we are all pulling in the same direction.”
“Our quest for
perfection simply
feeds our continuous
improvement.”
MIKE BROWN
Aero-Plastics Inc. — CEO
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER 2020 ISSUE NO. 16 27