Micro Craft, Inc., Provider of Complex Hardware for DoD and Aerospace Organizations, is Completing the Largest Facility and Equipment Upgrade in Nearly 2 Decades

Since 1958, Micro Craft, Inc. has provided support to the aerospace industry, NASA, and the Department of Defense (DOD) with prototype models and flight hardware.

TULLAHOMA, Tenn. - September 1, 2020 - (Newswire.com)

​​Micro Craft, Inc., is completing the largest facility and equipment upgrade in nearly two decades. This project includes the purchase of the facility, internal and external facility improvements, purchase of quality control and production equipment, including a Mazak Variaxis i-1050T five-axis mill and Mazak VTC-250R three-axis mill. The total investment is almost $5 million over the three-year period, spanning 2018 to 2020.

“This is a multifaceted improvement project,” according to Dr. Kenneth Sullivan, President/CEO of Micro Craft. “This investment not only increases our manufacturing productivity and capacity but it will also make Micro Craft a more environmentally friendly and efficient facility with the replacement of HVAC units and upgrading the lighting in the manufacturing areas. The lighting upgrade alone is estimated to reduce the power requirement by approximately 40% of the current lighting cost,” added Mr. Jay Wood, Manager of the Micro Craft Project Management Office.

Team Effort

As in any large project, it takes a team of multidiscipline organizations and people to accomplish the desired goals. The Micro Craft team consisted of Ms. Candy Taylor (Chief Financial Officer), Mr. Jay Wood (Project Manager), Mr. Jim Ivins (Operations Manager), Mr. Tony Boyce (Facilities Manager), Mr. Kevin LeMay (Contracts/Security Manager and Chairman of the Board), Mr. Michael Gray (Advisor to the Board of Directors) and Dr. Sullivan.

“Mr. Thom Robinson (Executive Director, Tullahoma Area Economic Development Corporation) was with us from the very beginning to get the project off on the right foot,” added Dr. Sullivan. Dr. Sullivan further added, “Thom made sure we had all the right players both locally and at the state level to accomplish a project of this size.”

Mr. Eddie Fitzgerald (Loan Officer/CDC Manager) and his team at South Central Tennessee Development (SCTD) provided invaluable direction and support in assisting Micro Craft in restructuring the financing. They worked with Mr. Roy Eckert (Executive Vice President) of First Vision Bank and Mr. Jake Wolaver (Middle Tennessee Law Group) to make sure the project was successful. Dr. Sullivan pointed out, “First Vision Bank has supported Micro Craft for several years, and once again, they were our MVP.”

Looking to the Future

In addition to facility and equipment upgrades, Micro Craft is also upgrading their business systems. “We have revamped our accounting, manufacturing and program management systems to permit us to manage larger programs, (both commercial and governmental) in a more efficient and cost-effective manner,” stated Mr. Kevin LeMay, Chairman of the Board.

Micro Craft has long been recognized as subject matter experts in the areas of precision machining and manufacturing. Last year, Micro Craft started working with Volunteer Aerospace (Knoxville, TN), who provides additive manufacturing services (3D printing) to various high technology industries. The two organizations have worked together to provide their customers with cost-effective hardware quite often in a shorter development time period while achieving geometric configurations not attainable by traditional subtractive machining. “Additive manufacturing is a growing field, and Volunteer Aerospace is a logical partner to work with to expand both our business bases,” added Dr. Sullivan.

Closing Ceremony Attendees (from left to right) - Mr. Kevin LeMay (Contracts/Security Manager and Chairman of the Board), Mr. Jay Wood (Manager, Program Management Office), Ms. Candy Taylor (Chief Financial Officer), Dr. Kenneth Sullivan (President/CEO), Mr. Eddie Fitzgerald (SCTD), Mr. Thom Robinson (Tullahoma Area Economic Development Corporation), Mr. Roy Eckert (First Vision Bank) and Mr. Jake Wolaver (Middle Tennessee Law Group, PLLC).

About Micro Craft

Since 1958, Micro Craft, Inc. has provided support to the aerospace industry, NASA, and the Department of Defense (DOD) with prototype models and flight hardware. Involved in the development of virtually every major domestic and many foreign fixed wing, rotary wing, and three missile system programs since the 1950s, Micro Craft, Inc. has been employee-owned (ESOP) since 2011. It is a certified Small Business that is AS9100 Rev. D certified, providing engineering, manufacturing, quality assurance, and testing services to the aerospace and defense industry. Micro Craft offers aerospace, mechanical, electrical, mechatronic and systems engineering. Specialty areas include aircraft, spacecraft, test facility, and instrumentation system program management, manufacturability analysis, production jigs and fixtures design and development. Micro Craft also provides wind tunnel modeling and instrumentation, stress analysis and modal analysis for wind tunnel models and industrial machines.

With over 20 years of experience with hypersonic programs, Micro Craft was the Prime contractor for NASA’s X-43 (Hyper-X) program. Cybersecurity compliance is of utmost importance to our organization, Micro Craft has implemented all DFAR controls (NIST 800-171) and is preparing for Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). In 2020, Micro Craft is implementing Deltek/Costpoint software for our accounting, manufacturing and program management systems.

For Additional Information:
Micro Craft, Inc.
207 Big Springs Avenue
Tullahoma, TN 37388
ATTN: Dr. Kenneth W. Sullivan
President/CEO
(931) 455-2617 ext. 205

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Original Source: Micro Craft, Inc., Provider of Complex Hardware for DoD and Aerospace Organizations, is Completing the Largest Facility and Equipment Upgrade in Nearly 2 Decades