2018cnc4-5.2

22 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST April/May 2018 M acKay Manufacturing started back in the late 40’s under different owners and a dif- ferent name. They were a small mom and pop shop servicing the local industries in North Eastern Washington State. Mike MacKay worked for five years as the salesman before buying it in 1986. Today, MacKay Manufacturing have 50,000 sq. ft of high tech multi axis manufacturing capabilities just down the road from their humble beginnings. Katie MacKay has been part of the team at MacKay Manufacturing since she was 7 years old and her dad pur- chased the company. Duties then were limited to filling the employee vending machines and stocking the soda machine. Katie officially joined the company full time in 1996 and worked her way through the ranks. As vice president she and general manager Bruce Something run the company. She, like her father before her is not a ma- chinist. Instead she hires people with the skills needed to operate the 65+ CNC machine tools at her disposal. “I got hired after high school to work in the office,” tells Katie. “After that I was the delivery driver for a few years. I re- ally enjoyed the delivery aspect because I was out rep- resenting the company. It gave me a chance to see the parts and meet the customers.” She transitioned over to a supervisory role in shipping before turning her atten- tions to their extensive finishing department. “Our fin- ishing department includes all the hand work, lasers and assembly,” details Katie. “I headed up that department for 9 years before becoming vice president. Dad is fairly re- tired and I’ve been VP for four years now. My dad wasn’t a machinist; he was just a good salesman who supported his customers. We still don’t have a sales person, but my- self, Bruce Szember and my cousin Chadd MacKay who is our NPI manager (new product introduction) handle sales, customer support and maintain the culture of the company. The people are now, and always have been the best part of this job.” MacKay Manufacturing is an AS9100, ISO13485, and ISO9001 registered company primarily serving the medi- cal industry. More than 60% of their work falls under medical with it split between implantables and devices. “Medical is a large part of our business,” details Katie. “We also support aerospace, defense, and semi conductor. Most of our customers are large publicly traded compa- nies. We don’t manufacture any of our own products and really are still a job shop.” With the amount of technology at MacKay Manufacturing it is difficult to think of them as a job shop, but the reality is the lathe department alone VERICUT CRITICAL TO MULTI AXIS PRODUCTION Article by Sean Buur Photos By Sean Buur & MacKay Manufacturing MACKAY MANUFACTURING