Northwest Aerospace News February | March 2019 Issue No. 7 | Page 39

The 21st Century Factory and Employees Jason Luckie, operations manager, is a classic manufacturing company success story. He’s been with the company for six years and has rapidly advanced from machinist to lead, then to supervisor, and was named Director of Operations in July 2018. Myers said, “He has been part of the transformation of the facility to a 21st century factory.” According to both Luckie and Myers, they are very invested in growth for employees from a training and opportunity standpoint. Luckie said, “We are really committed to employee advancement, education and servicing our community. We are about the people. We are willing to train people and help them to grow in their career and we support the com- munity through donations, time and training.” They have been especially invested in helping train the next generation of employees through time and donations to the Everett Community College, Advanced Manufacturing Training and Education Center (AMTEC). Luckie routinely works with AMTEC as well as Arlington High School to set up plant tours, offer curriculum development support, and training. They have donated equipment for training to AMTEC. In addition to training investments, Luckie has worked hard to set up tech- nological advancements in the factory. This includes lean manufacturing improvements and the implementation of FactoryWiz, which allows them to monitor productivity, “We have a dedicated productively plan to increase productivity a minimum of five percent year-over-year.” They are currently at 99.85 percent regarding customer quality satisfaction and have shipped 445,252 pieces in the past 12 months. With their four-building campus in Arlington, Luckie said, “The campus meets our needs and we are continually investing in technology to support our customer. The goal is to ensure they receive the highest level of support.” They said they are always looking at technologies to bring on and have recently made investments into FabriVISION 2D technology for integrated sheet metal inspection. Another purchase they’ve recently made is for a Chi- ron Automated Extrusion Profile Mill — the first like it in the United States. If you are reading this and think that Universal Aerospace sounds like a pret- ty good bet — you could be in luck. They are actively hiring and with their long-term contracts, it could be a great place to make your career. Universal Aerospace 18640 59th Dr NE Arlington, WA 98223 [email protected] +(1) 360.435.9577 https://www.universalaero.com FEBRUARY | MARCH 2019 ISSUE NO. 7 39