Manufacturing in the U.S. expanding in Illinois: The case of GAM Enterprises

GAM Enterprises employee profile: Peter

Title: Certified CNC and lathe operator

Background: CNC machinist and Level I programmer from Wilbur Wright College of Chicago

Years with GAM Enterprises: Three

Day-to-day: Configures and programs machinery for first-run manufacturing cycles, and sets up all gauging and measuring equipment for inspections and quality control on component accuracy before shipment

Take on GAM culture: “We’re a responsive team with the right tools, so if someone from sales needs me to rush-job something, we can do that immediately. In such situations, I likely have most of the tools in the lathe … but I just swap out the tools needed to get the small lot out, and then come back to what we were running before. We do that a lot more quickly than facilities with old-style equipment and approaches.”

Peter embodies the GAM culture with dedication to continuous improvement for the sake of flexible manufacturing. “Most machine tools are similar, but I’m always learning and expanding the range of what I’m comfortable running — which imparts confidence to go to the next level.”

Take on GAM capabilities: “We can switch between large and small orders very quickly, so even prototyping and inspection of one-off parts are easy with our quick changeovers. That’s because our facility is setup for this. For example, our main lathe has a quick-change motor turret to eliminate the tedious tool changes that force operators in traditional settings to use allen wrenches and collets to set and release tools.”

GAM also works to continually improve the efficiency of processes on the manufacturing floor, says Peter. “For example, we have all our drills and taps setup so the ones we use on jobs the most are most accessible. I also use setup sheets, First Article, and In-Process Inspection Sheets for our NLX precision CNC lathe to quickly connect the right tools (from 20) for each program configuration — whether they require chamfering, drilling, or tapping, for example.”

Click on these GAM-gear profile images to hear what Nick and Mark had to say.