Northwest Aerospace News June | July 2019 Issue No. 9 | Page 45

“After we got that account, we got a call from British Airways,” Roberts remembered. “They wanted the same thing, but not quite — and then we got a call from United, and then Alaska Airlines, and we were off and running. As aerospace came in, we started letting some of our other product lines go. Aerospace is where most anodizers would like to be.” For five years, the company thrived, taking on new aviation contracts and adding employees and equipment to meet the growing demand. Then, it abruptly faced an existential threat. “We were doing a lot of work for Rockwell Collins, and they announced that they were only going to use NADCAP-certified suppliers moving forward,” said Roberts. “We blindly hired four people to help support the certification process, not even knowing if we were going to be able to get it. It was definitely a leap of faith.” NADCAP is an acronym for the “National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program.” It’s a stringent set of quality standards first established in 1989 to reduce costs and ensure conformity to the exacting requirements of the aerospace industry. Before NADCAP was established, individual companies had to audit their own supply chains to ensure that standards were being met, resulting in huge duplication of effort. JUNE | JULY 2019 ISSUE NO. 9 45