Gray Manufacturing Names New Quality Supervisor
DENVER, NC – Jan. 18, 2022 – Companies today typically like to ease freshly-hired employees into their new roles, satisfying overused cliches such as “getting your feet wet” before asking for too much.
But that doesn’t happen in every situation, and that was definitely not the case for Gray Manufacturing Technologies’ Luke Honbarger.
Gray hired Luke to fill an engineering role, but in less than a year with the Compass Precision operating company, Luke has held two different job titles. He has succeeded in both, though, and Compass has officially announced this month that Luke will permanently remain as Gray’s Quality Supervisor.
“We hired Luke thinking we were getting an engineer for a manufacturing support role,” explained Gary Holcomb, CEO of parent company Compass Precision. “What we got was much more, a professional ambitious and flexible enough to take on many different roles.”
Luke is certainly flexible. Of the two positions Luke has filled during his tenure at Gray Manufacturing Technologies, LLC, he didn’t apply for either. After he discovered Gray on Google Maps during a search for aerospace manufacturing companies in or near Denver, NC, Luke applied to become a mechanical engineer at the Compass Precision operating company.
At the time, Gray didn’t have an opening for a mechanical engineer. Still, the company offered Luke a different position – quality engineer. The job title didn’t matter to Luke as much as having a job at an aerospace manufacturing company did.
“I like the sound of aerospace. I guess that’s not the best reasoning for liking aerospace so much,” said Luke. “But it has a nice ring to it. Anybody that talks to you about, ‘Well, what do you do? Well, we make space race parts. I’m in the aerospace industry.’
“It just sounds and feels accomplishing to an extent.”
While Luke explained that he always liked building things, he wasn’t on the path to being in machining several years ago. He began his career as a Lube Technician at a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership after earning an Associates in Automotive Systems Technology from Gaston College.
But then cars emerged as more of a hobby for Luke, and he wanted more from his career. At Gaston College, he began taking prerequisites for an engineering degree and then enrolled at UNC at Charlotte. In 2019, he graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Mathematics.
A few months after graduation, Luke started working as a project engineer at Chematron, Inc. He was instrumental in helping the company transition away from only chemical manufacturing to hand sanitization production. That proved to be an astute move for Chematron, with the heavy emphasis on cleaning supplies arriving because of COVID-19 in 2020.
Despite that success, Luke said he still wanted another change about a year into his tenure at Chematron. That led to him searching for aerospace and machining companies near Denver, where he’s lived his entire life.
Luke could not be more pleased with his decision to pursue an engineering degree and leave Chematron for Gray.
“At Gray, I’m 10 times happier because there’s always something for me to do,” said Luke. “Now with the position I’m in, I’m on the decision-making side of things to an extent. I get a lot more say and involvement in almost everything I get to touch and do here. It’s a great place.”
Gray experienced some turnover in management during 2021, including two changes at Quality Manager. Luke learned from the two men who held that role last year and when it became vacant, he quickly began doing everything the position entailed except auditing.
Luke has relished the unexpected opportunity, and in 2022, Luke says he wants to add auditing to his long list of tasks.
“My New Year’s resolution is to be able to get some certifications,” said Luke. “I would like to be AS9100 certified myself – just bring a little more to the table from my end. Rather than what I know, I want to be qualified for it as well on paper.
“I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to step up and fill some big shoes.”
Gray Manufacturing operates from a 25,000-square-foot facility in Denver, NC, which is 30 miles northwest of Charlotte. The company concentrates in creating extremely complicated components often made out of difficult-to-work-with materials such as titanium and Inconel.
The Compass operating company was founded in 2013. Johnny Gray, a wealthy entrepreneur, financed the creation of the company and then sold it in 2020 to Compass.
Main Street Capital Holdings, a Pittsburgh-based private equity firm, founded Compass Precision in 2019. Main Street acquired three CNC machining sister companies — Advanced Machining & Tooling, LLC, Quality Products & Machine, LLC and Tri-Tec Industries, LLC — in the Charlotte area during 2019 and placed them under a new umbrella company, Compass Precision, LLC.
Less than a year later, Compass added Gray in Aug. 2020. In March 2021, Compass expanded outside of North Carolina and acquired Douglas Machining Services, LLC in Winona, MN.