Nonprofit Manufacturer of the Year

Orion Industries, Federal Way

Orion Industries is a precision metal fabricator specializing in aerospace but with customers in defense, automotive, medical and marine industries. Just as important for Orion as the products it makes are the people who makes them. As a social enterprise, Orion provides job training and opportunities for those with disabilities and other barriers to employment: Of its 205 employees, 143 are permanent and 62 are in rotating training positions. Last year, Orion had 182 employees in its manufacturing training program, and helped land 104 in jobs in the community, many of those in aerospace. Program participants are paid minimum wage ($9.04 per hour) as they rotate through departments, production processes and with different pieces of equipment. They do so under the one-to-one tutelage of a mentor and with vocational counselors who can identify and aid in resolving employment barriers, helping to hone the skills and abilities that will lead to full-time, living-wage employment.

Not that the attention to job training means Orion skimps on attention to operational performance. On time is part of everything that Orion does, the company says. People arrive at work on time, meetings start on time, suppliers are paid on time; it naturally follows that product moves through production and ships on time. Excellent processes throughout the organization assure consistent results. Consistently improving results, that is. Orion says it has seen a 50 percent improvement in revenue per employee, a 30 percent reduction in flow time and a 20 percent reduction in defects during the past three years. Additionally, it has reduced its product costs each year for the past four years.