The business location is a lifestyle decision for the owners and employees . They are in beautiful Poulsbo , Washington , and Reyes-Potts said , “ Poulsbo is in Kitsap County — Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton is nearby [ the shop ]. There are local customers we can support well .” She said most of their customers are in the Pacific Northwest and that because they are located outside of Seattle , “ Our employees have a peaceful drive to work and never sit in traffic .”
She added , “ We love the mountains , the water , and the great quality of life . I attend many networking events in Portland , Seattle , Tacoma , and Everett and take a relaxing ferry home . There aren ’ t many machine shops in Kitsap compared to King or Snohomish . For those here , the local economic development group KEDA is supportive . We hang on to people for a long time . People here don ’ t want to commute to work for their high-tech aerospace machining job . We can find and retain that talent here .”
While most of their customers are in the Northwest , they also have customers in California and New York and have supported some as far away as France and Germany . As an ITAR-registered company , most of their work is defense-industry related . But they also service commercial aerospace and space industries , electronics , automation , and instrumentation . In addition , TMF offers light assembly work . Examples include electronics enclosures and latches , in this case , external nacelle latches for private jets . They manufacture every part of the product and assemble it . “ We are good at latches ,” Reyes-Potts said .
She is proud of their parts . “ We make quality hardware ,” she added .
38 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS