Northwest Aerospace News June | July Issue No. 3 | Page 10

“None of the geeks were natural commu-
nicators in a client meeting, but as soon as
someone started looking at plans or brought
up a technical spec issue, we were off and
running, everyone in their element,”
confessed Taylor.
Altek embracing their geek flag and maintaining the
founder’s philosophy of building the business in response to
client demand, instead of build-it-and-they-will-come prac-
tices, has carried Altek through some uneasy transitions.
Until about ten years ago, Altek survived for the most part
outside of the aerospace industry. Mike Marzetta, Altek’s
president, shared, “We did some Tier 2 work, but aerospace
was a scary industry. There was so much paperwork and
regulation, that we honestly didn’t want to step up unless
we knew we could excel.” A compulsion to diversify during
the economic downturn in 2007/2008, along with the real-
ization that Altek found great success at deep-diving into
hard and complex design and engineering projects, helped
Altek leadership shift to embracing aerospace fully and be-
coming certified. Historically, Altek was visionary enough
to implement Deming model lean business practices and
ISO 9001-2000, so the complexities of AS9100 certification
was actually a natural evolution for them.
As Altek grew into their technically savvy culture, they
embraced it as their greatest strength. “We realized we were
good at taking on projects no one else wanted to touch.
Our engineers speaking with client’s engineers touched on
substantive issues pertaining to programs and complex-
ities,” says Taylor. “The polished presentation and slick
sales game, just isn’t what we’re about,” added Marzetta.
“We’re about helping a client with a component or design
that just isn’t coming together. Sometimes, after looking at
sub-assembly, we can see the entire design might be sim-
plified and streamlined, therefore saving time and money in
manufacturing it.”
The maturation of their core strengths, and ability to in-
novate solutions to meet client need, has catapulted Altek
into not only excelling as a supplier to Tier 2 and Tier 1
aerospace suppliers — companies like Rockwell Collins,
Zodiak, and Crane Aerospace — but also chasing that Tier
1 Boeing certification themselves. This process is being
approached in much the same way the company has grown
to date, cautiously and sensibly.
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NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS
In recent years, Altek has organically grown beyond the
component manufacturing model to a system manu-
facturing model. They’ve been allowed this growth
through proving their worth and building a reputation
for partnering with clients to exceed the immediate need,
sometimes being able to take on design and manufacture
of entire assemblies, maybe outside a client’s core com-
petency, allowing for a turnkey integrated supply chain
solution. Altek’s entrepreneurial approach to fulfilling
need combined with their brain trust and sheer joy of
taking on a complicated design, allows them success
even in the most daunting projects. This tenacity and
efficiency has resulted in what is now a comprehensive
and impressive service line.
Today Altek offers full-service contract manufacturing
that provides engineering and full product realization
services across the medical, industrial, and aerospace
industries.