Jemco employs management consulting and organizational leadership for team productivity and efficiency.
Conflict and communication challenges are pervasive in all businesses. In manufacturing, these difficulties can cause missed deadlines, low retention, and even safety issues. Jemco Components & Fabrication, Inc. of Kirkland, Washington, is a 40-year-old family-owned business. The company aims to produce products for space and defense customers and does so with deliberate communication and soft skills.
Travis Moore, president and second-generation leader, studied organizational industrial psychology in college and remembers working in the company as a kid. He said he was in the first class at Pepperdine University to graduate with this major. “In manufacturing, there are so many old-school tactics where you yell at your team enough to get them to do their job. We have a different approach here at Jemco where we support them in a very sacrificial, loving, kind, generous way — it has been extremely helpful.” He works closely with his brother, AJ Moore, VP of customer support, to continue building the legacy that their parents started. The company makes parts for space and defense applications in their 60,000-square-foot facility.
They have 140 people, and Travis said he’s worn every hat in the company. He noted that over the last eight years, they’ve grown by 10x. His philosophy is to “hire people smarter than me, and then I get out of their way.” However, the metric of how that works is more involved.
The Moores have spent a significant amount of time (and likely money) investing in their people to grow a vigorous business. Travis said he challenges employees but tries to do it with “humility and respect, and increasing the ceiling of expectations.” He does this all to “be our customer’s favorite supplier.” He wants customers to know they are “heard, loved, and appreciated.”
Their parents, Stan and Jane Moore, the company founders, are still involved and come to the office. AJ said they are excited to see what the company is doing, and Travis said being able to give them peace of mind and the fact that the company is thriving is essential to them.
Travis said AJ’s role is mission critical, “Our customers give us very challenging requests, and our job is to bend over backward to take care of them. It is a high-stress role that is underappreciated. My brother does a good job of that.” Travis loves the challenge of his work, “It is challenging my communication skills, patience, and intellect and that of those around me.” He likened running a company to physical fitness, “It’s like doing a new workout every day, and you just get stronger and more flexible and coordinated — mentally, relationally, and technically.”
To continue meeting the challenges, he is involved in YPO and Vistage, which are personal boards of directors’ organizations that help him approach things from a fresh angle and new perspective. “This network of leaders has been instrumental — sometimes we get too close (to the issue), so we help each other in that regard.”
75 percent of their business is for the space industry, with 15 percent in the defense industry. Travis said they do about 10 percent of their work in commercial aviation. They make components and provide complex assemblies. “We started with lower-level assembly but have continued to increase our success rates on higher-level assemblies,” Travis noted. They make landing gear, avionics (bezels and computers for the flight deck), wing tips, oxygen systems, luggage bins, lavatory parts, windows, engine components, and interiors.
Jake Gardner is VP of operations, and he’s been with Jemco for almost 14 years. He earned a degree in business management, but originally thought he would get into a creative career regarding arts and film. With that mindset, he got into manufacturing and “was able to use his creativity to solve problems.” His position is that Jemco excels in complex, high-mix, high variability work. “We are always learning something new. We can pivot quickly to new projects and new types of work to solve complex problems,” like new rocket ships or airplanes, which he said takes creativity. The parts have complex features and tight tolerances, so, they ask, “How can we be efficient and effective in meeting customer deadlines?”
Jake shared that they receive positive feedback from customers regarding their problem-solving ability — they can respond quickly to highly complex parts and features that “many companies may be scared to take on (or they may need to get another supplier involved).” He commented that the parts can be high-risk, but they want to be the company to “think creatively about the best way to make the part and how to manufacture the part, and get the right parties involved.” They never shy away from the hard things to do.
One reason might be their partner network and management consulting companies, with whom they work to develop their leadership. Jake said Travis doesn’t just talk about the “tactical side of things, but also the mental side of things — dealing with conflict, how to better communicate, and focusing on the mental side of things to develop as leaders to help Jemco.”
First, they have two companies supporting their efforts to improve communication and conflict resolution. One is The Yes Works adaptability training with Principle Aaron Schmookler (Tacoma, Washington), and the other is Crestcom Training (Washington division in Olympia) with Manuel Martinez. Aaron and Manny are focused on turning managers into leaders who work in various soft and management skills areas. Manny said, “Many industries are old school, ‘do it my way or the highway.’ In today’s business world and environment, that approach provides limited results. How do we empower people to do a task effectively? Not just because the boss wants me to do it or something else.” He said they’ve worked with Jemco for three years and focus on “people development.”
Aaron Schmookler, CEO and company culture engineer with The Yes Works, has engaged with Jemco since July 2024. They started team health assessments with the core leadership team. He said their task is to reduce waste in manufacturing. He observed that often people have information about how to reduce waste or become more efficient, but they are only sometimes willing to share. He said it is about increasing productive conflict and learning how to communicate and discuss ideas that help share and resolve information. He said that in manufacturing companies, broadly speaking, there are always conflicts between sales, production, or operations. “Client X says we want 2,500 of these by a week from today.” Instead of agreeing with the customer for immediate delivery, the sales department, once trained to better communicate, says, “Given these circumstances, we have agreed in the past through a decision tree that if the machines crank out the yes, we can do that, then that’s the decision I make.” By working together to make decisions systematically, he said, “Production then can go after the system to make adjustments instead of going after people in the department.”
Aaron offered a quote from Abraham Lincoln: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I’ll spend four hours sharpening the axe.” He cited Travis’s feeling that planning and discussion improve the teams’ results.
Jake said after a project, “It’s a big win for the team. We have to innovate, think outside the box, and rely on each other’s strengths to come up with a good plan.” Beyond thinking, planning, and ensuring conflict is resolved, he said Travis and all leaders ensure that the work environment is engaging, and people are celebrated.
In a world where conflict is commonplace, and communication is divided, it is positive to hear about higher-level thinking in a regional manufacturing company that produces a great product and even better people.
Contacts
Jemco Components & Fabrication
www.gojemco.com
603 5th Place South, Kirkland, WA 98033-6673
(425) 827-7611
Crestcom Training
https://crestcom.com/
Manuel Martinez
Olympia, Washington
360-561-4030
manuel.martinez@crestcom.com
The YES Works www.theyesworks.com
Aaron Schmookler
1402 Alameda Ave, Fircrest, WA 98466
(253) 301-8004
Why Jemco?
OUR PURPOSE
To provide solutions for our customers,
a rewarding career for our team members,
and service to our community.
OUR VISION
To be the nation’s most reliable shop for achieving customer requirements:
Parts made RIGHT, ON TIME.
OUR MISSION
To give our customers, and ourselves, the BEST effort every day.
