“SQDC”

We conduct our manufacturing operations based upon the well established priorities of Safety-Quality-Delivery-Cost or “SQDC.” These four operational elements are listed in priority order. Our Operational Priorities are founded upon the sincere and extensive experience belief that our employees are our most valuable resource and time is our most valuable asset. We strive to provide our employees with the safest possible work environment so that they may focus their talents, intellect and skills on the task at hand. This is simply our number one priority: Safety. By setting Quality as the second priority we can avoid the timely delays associated with Rework or Scrap. When Safety and Quality are prioritized ahead of schedule or dollars, the natural outcome is improved Delivery, priority three, performance for our Customers and optimized Cost, priority four, performance.

Safety

Our Operational Priorities start with Safety. There is no competing priority. This is our Priority Number One! We sincerely want each and every employee to finish their work day ideally better than and, minimally, no worse than when they arrived to start their shift.

Our commitment to safety includes company provided PPE to our employees. Our Safety Glasses, including prescription safety eyewear, and our Safety Shoes program are 100% paid company expenses. Additionally we provide other PPE items where required such as Fall Protection Harnesses and Cut Resistant Gloves. We also ensure all employees have access to our Safety Data Sheets so that they are informed as to the materials and supplies we use in our manufacturing processes. We also utilize industry standard best practices such as Machine Guarding to enhance the safety of our work environment.

We require all divisions to conduct “Near Miss” programs. We believe that reporting and taking action on “Near Misses” will improve our work environment. We identify hazards BEFORE an accident or injury occurs. We learn from our hazards and “look across’ our factory to find similar hazards. We also share Near Misses between divisions so each factory team has the opportunity to learn about and mitigate risks beyond those identified in their own factory.

Quality

Quality is priority two behind Safety. A fundamental principle of our commitment to Quality is the use of “Standard Work. “ By setting the expectation for using Standard Work, we ensure our processes are robust. The term robust is not just a word…”robust processes” are identified by 4 elements: (1) documentation, (2) training, (3) performance measurement and (4) continuous improvement.

All of our divisions maintain ISO9001:2015 and AS9100D registration and fully participate in the audit and oversight process. We fundamentally believe a culture that embraces quality standards creates a more rewarding work experience and more value to our customers.

We also conduct daily Gemba walks to “go see where the value is created…help bring together the vertical (employee to supervisor to general manager) and horizontal (department to department) elements within the organization . We focus on ensuring our front line employees have the correct work instructions, tools, equipment and material to manufacture a defect free component.

We utilize our Customer Scorecards to measure our Quality performance against their expectations.

Delivery

Delivery is Operational Priority three behind Safety and Quality. We pride ourselves on delivering a defect free product on time to our customers. A key to this is measuring On Time Starts to maximize the opportunity for On Time Finish. Both these measurements contribute to our ability to Deliver on schedule to our customers.

We utilize Best Practices in Planning and Scheduling such as SIOP combined with Supplier Owned Inventory programs to enable us to maintain a constant production schedule while accounting for cyclical customer demand that is associated with build to print machining of production and spares components.

We utilize our Customer Scorecards as an external and independent measure for our Delivery performance against their Schedule requirements.

COST

Our fourth and final Operational Priority is Cost, behind Safety, Quality and Delivery. We will expend resources to ensure the first 3 operational priorities are achieved. We focus on measuring our Productivity, Efficiency and Machine Utilization to ensure we manufacture the products for the costs quoted. It is imperative that we seek to continuously improve all 3 measures of cost performance to maintain our competitive position in the market so that we may provide value to our customers.

The key to managing production Cost is daily discipline to measure Earned Hours against a detailed plan. Each shift, each machine and each employee are measured to ensure we rapidly identify constraints that negatively impact Productivity, Efficiency and Machine Utilization.