R&D Quality Manager Fits The Mold
Nate Hogue was probably destined from birth to work in machining. But at R&D Machine, he’s continued making something of his own in his career.
Both Nate’s father and grandfather worked in machining. His father, Pat, started his own successful business around 20 years old.
Pat has sold and restarted his business from scratch in Missouri a few times during his career. Along the way, he trained Nate and his younger brother, Nick, to join the machining industry.
“I’d still like to say that he’s probably the best that I’ve ever learned from,” Nate said of his father. “The guy is pretty brilliant. Taught me and my brother a lot of stuff, and kind of helped us develop our own careers in the same field.”
R&D Machine has benefited tremendously from the first-hand training Nate received.
Nate Hogue has served as quality manager at the Compass Precision operating company over the past year and a half. He oversees anything quality related from the inspection of parts, inspection scheduling, part verifying and monitoring of quality in materials from vendors. Nate also manages the quality management system and AS9100 certification.
His first experience in AS9100 came while he was working for his father’s company, Hogue Tool & Machine. About 10 years ago, Hogue began developing relationships with several space companies. With that, Nate pushed for the company to earn its AS9100 certificate in 2015.
Although he worked countless hours after school and on the weekends prior to a full-time position alongside Pat, Nate officially worked for Hogue Tool & Machine for seven years.
That experience prepared Nate for the daily challenges he encounters at R&D Machine. The size of the Compass operating company matched what Nate was accustomed to as well.
“It seemed like a good fit. I liked the outlook on the business, the path at the time,” Nate said of R&D Machine. “Gary (Holcomb, Compass CEO) and Justin (Kovscek, R&D Machine VP/GM) were saying they liked smaller shops with good customer bases, and they were acquiring new people through Compass. I really liked the thought of that.”
”Nate has come on board and really stepped up our quality function,” said Justin. “Adding him to our team was a stroke of good fortune.”
“One of the things I really liked about Nate when we hired him was that he understood the challenges, and the opportunities, of working in a machine shop with less than 30-35 employees,” explained Gary. “We all get to do lots of different things, and the results of your efforts are quickly visible. Clearly, Nate excels in this type of environment.”
In between working for Hogue and R&D Machine, Nate served as quality engineer for two years at Attenti US. The company produces GPS tracking devices used with offenders.
Although he still cheers for the Kansas City Chiefs, Nate has lived in Florida for four years. He moved to the Sunshine state in 2020 prior to starting at Attenti US.
This year, Nate aims to improve both his quality department’s efficiency and thoroughness in inspections. He also would like to make updates to and simplify the company’s Quality Management System.
All in an effort to get R&D Machine’s parts done correctly 100% of the time.
“Once our parts go up in space, they aren’t necessarily designed to come back,” said Nate. “So you have to make sure they’re good the first time around.