Young Engineer at Gray Promoted Second Time in 2022
DENVER, NC – Oct. 11, 2022 – Promotions are rare, often occurring but a precious few times during an entire career. Most professionals typically linger in roles for years before moving up the ladder. Fortunately for its employees, Compass Precision is not a typical employer. But then, neither are its people typical employees.
Gray Manufacturing Technologies proudly announced today its promotion of Luke Honbarger to Quality Manager effective immediately. Luke moves into this position after serving for just nine months as Quality Supervisor at Gray, a Compass Precision operating company. He joined Gray in April 2021 as manufacturing engineer and served in this capacity until his first promotion in January 2022.
“Luke has done everything asked of him and more,” said Jacob Trahan, Gray Manufacturing General Manager. “Most importantly, customers have grown to trust his decision making and responsiveness. If Luke says he will get something done, it always does. And he consistently goes the extra mile to accomplish things without ever being asked.”
One of Luke’s self-initiated projects was to complete the personal requirements for Perry Johnson’s AS9100 certification, in other words, becoming a certificated AS9100 auditor. He took on this task to become more familiar with AS9100 requirements in preparation for Gray’s upcoming ISO 9100:2015 and AS9100D audit in March 2023.
“I have seen quality people go to great lengths in preparation for an AS9100 audit,” explained Gray Operation Manager Evan Grosse. “But not sure I know of anyone who actually became an auditor in order to best deal with an auditor. What Luke did is pretty amazing.”
In his newly expanded role, Luke will be overseeing three employees in inspection, assembly, and shipping as well as interacting daily with customers and vendors, prioritizing source inspection, and overseeing the coordinate measurement lab. Customers are already feeling the effects of his involvement. One very large customer recently complemented Gray on Luke’s rapid and professional responsiveness on root cause and corrective action matters. Another customer has benefited greatly from his handling of supply chain bottlenecks on a very difficult-to-manufacture part.
“I really like the challenges being thrown at me here at Gray Manufacturing,” said Luke. “I always want to learn and do more. At most places, guys like me have to wait in line to get ahead. That just is not true at Gray and Compass.”
“We are thrilled to have Luke in our organization and on the Gray team,” explained Compass CEO Gary Holcomb. “Compass is composed of a number of small machine shops with 10 to 35 people at each. Every employee is important. Guys like Luke that want to advance in their careers and take on more responsibility are our lifeblood. And we fill every position possible internally, especially management roles.”
Gray Manufacturing operates from a 25,000-square-foot facility in Denver, NC, which is 30 miles northeast of Charlotte. The company focuses on manufacturing complicated-shaped components, often made out of difficult-to-work-with materials such as titanium and Inconel.
Gray was founded in 2013 and grew nicely until being acquired by Compass Precision in 2020. Since that time, Compass has applied its management and financial skills to position Gray for accelerated growth in the aerospace & defense and space markets which it primarily serves.
Compass Precision was created in 2019 when it simultaneously acquired three Charlotte-area precision machine shops – Advanced Machining & Tooling in Salisbury, NC; Quality Products & Machine in Charlotte, NC; and Tri-Tec Industries, also in Charlotte. Following the add-on acquisition of Gray Manufacturing Technologies in August 2020, Compass also acquired Douglas Manufacturing Services in Winona, MN (March 2021); R&D Machine in Oldsmar, FL (April 2022) and Strom Manufacturing in North Plains, OR (July 2022).
For more information about Gray Manufacturing and Compass Precision, please contact Compass CEO Gary Holcomb at [email protected].