Machine heads
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, April 11, 2004
EVERETT — Onamac may be Camano spelled backward, but there’s nothing backwards about Onamac Inustries Inc.
The south Everett machine shop recently was named one of 13 top suppliers to the Boeing Co., out of more than 10,000 companies worldwide.
"We’re certainly very proud to be part of that select group," company president Mike Thorburn said. "It gives us a lot of motivation to continue to perform."
Top-level performance hasn’t been a problem for Onamac in the past, at least according to Boeing. Before being named Boeing’s top small-business supplier in 2003, the company won back-to-back President’s Awards for Excellence from Boeing, in 1998 and 1999.
"Onamac is always willing to step up to the plate," said Tom Armijo, the director of spares supplier management for Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes Group. "We never have to worry about the quality, or the commitment they’ve given us."
Onamac manufactures more than 8,000 spare parts for older Boeing jets still being flown by the world’s airlines.
The company uses computer-controlled machine tools to grind out aluminum and chrome parts for Boeing 727s and early-model 737s and 747s, MD-80s and MD-90s, as well as for older military planes. Onamac delivers 25 to 30 spares a day to Boeing’s central spares depot near SeaTac.
Most of Onamac’s business comes from producing simple things like bolts and bushings that take a pounding during takeoffs and landings and must be replaced regularly. Boeing hires Onamac to produce those in volume.
But it’s the special-order jobs Onamac does that set the company apart, Armijo said.
"Spares is a unique business," he said. "We need suppliers who are very reactive."
When a plane is grounded for want of a part, it’s essential for the airline to know exactly how long it will take for Boeing to get a replacement there, Armijo said. Boeing, in turn, has to know exactly how long it will take its suppliers to produce the spare.
That’s not as easy as it sounds, Armijo said. Onamac produces a lot of different parts, and some of them only rarely. It can take a while to round up the plans and tools, and time is of the essence, because airlines lose money every minute one of its jets is out of service.
What makes Onamac outstanding is the company’s ability to figure out ways to produce and deliver the parts on time, he said.
"They believe in customer satisfaction," Armijo said. "They consistently go beyond their basic obligations."
Onamac has a 98.5 percent on-time delivery rate for Boeing’s commercial jet parts, and a perfect record when it comes to deliveries for the military.
Making parts for the military is something fairly new for Onamac, which got its start on Camano Island in 1974, machining pieces for fishing reels.
Prior to Sept. 11, Onamac produced parts only for Boeing commercial jets, doing about $15 million worth of Boeing business each year, Thorburn said.
But when air travel collapsed after the terror attacks, much of that business dried up. Airlines parked many of the older planes that Onamac machines parts for. To stay afloat, the company slashed half its work force.
It also moved aggressively to find new customers. Thorburn said Onamac now provides parts for companies like Goodrich Corp. and Nuvant, which assemble them into larger components that they deliver to Boeing.
Onamac also picked up more military-related work, both with Boeing and the Defense Department.
"We spent a lot of effort there," Thorburn said. "It wasn’t just opportunities that were waiting to be filled."
Onamac also picked up contracts to machine parts for a Tennessee medical equipment company. That’s a "fairly good fit" for an aerospace company, because both require high levels of precision.
"The last two years we’ve worked pretty hard to diversify in other areas," Thorburn said, and it’s starting to pay off.
Demand for commercial jet spare parts has been rising since last fall, Thorburn said. Air travel is increasing, airlines are putting older jets back in service and Boeing is building up its spare parts inventories to meet demand. Thorburn said March was the company’s best sales month since before Sept. 11.
As a result, Onamac is adding workers, "as quick as we can find machinists," Thorburn said. Employment still isn’t back to 2001 levels, but it is on the rise.
"We don’t think that trend is short term," he said. "There’s reasons to believe it’s going to continue."
Thorburn said Onamac has "a good quality core group" of employees who make a difference for the company. It also has a philosophy that "we can do it better tomorrow than we did it today," he said.
"There’s some good things on the horizon," he said. "No question about it."
Reporter Bryan Corliss:
425-339-3454 or
