Since 2005 when Exacta Machine, Inc. made the decision to change its name to Exacta Aerospace, Inc. to better reflect the core business, the company has launched a number of initiatives to help achieve the vision of becoming a leading supplier in the aerospace industry.  One of those initiatives was a partnership in 2007 with QMI SAI Global to attain AS9100 certification.  On June 20, 2007 Exacta was awarded the AS 9100 Rev. B: 2004 and ISO 9001:2000 Certificate of Registration.  (View our Certificate)  Although Exacta has a long history of embracing Continuous Improvement, the certification assures customers that Exacta's Quality Management System meets the highest standards recognized throughout the world.  After initial certification, Surveillance Audits are the heart of the process.  Exacta is pleased to announce that on January 16, 2009 the 24 month Surveillance Audit conducted by QMI SAI Global returned a score of 98.9.  The company was complimented on the efforts taken to flow down the quality policy and quality objectives to all employees.  Each year the quality objectives are refined and charted and each employee receives a card that contains the objectives along with the company's mission and vision statements.  The chart is also displayed throughout the facility.  According to Jarrod Young, Director of Quality Assurance at Exacta Aerospace, "the visual displays are a good reminder that quality is everyone's responsibility".

Like a lot of the aerospace suppliers in the Wichita, Kansas area these days, the employees at Exacta Aerospace are often on the job on Saturdays making aircraft parts.  This weekend (June20-22) many of the folks at Exacta will be at the ballpark helping raise money for burn victims and their families.  The Smoke Eaters Softball Tournament is a fun-filled weekend of friendly, competitive softball, entertainment, food and special events that  honor and celebrate survivors of burn injury and their families.  All proceeds are donated to Via Christi Regional Burn Center, the only dedicated burn care facility in a 180-mile radius of Wichita.  Exacta has joined Children's Miracle Network, The City of Wichita, Sedgwick County Fire Department and a host of other corporate sponsors to support this important cause.  For more information on the event and the work of the burn center go to www.smokeeaterssoftball.com or www.via-christi.org.

August, 2007 - The Supply Chain Management (SCM)Organization at Spirit Aerosystems presented Exacta Aerospace with an Outstanding Supplier Performance Award on August 31, 2007. The award was given in recognition of exemplary management of new parts for the P-8A Poseidon and Boeing 777 Freighter Programs. The award also recognized the team for maintaining an overall quality and delivery rating above 99% on all programs. In honor of the achievement and to personally congratulate the company and their employees, members of the Spirit SCM organization visited the Exacta facility in October.

 One of the things HR Director Shawna Biggars tackled when she arrived at Exacta Aerospace in 2007 was to launch the company's first ever United Way Corporate Campaign.  Armed with previous campaign experience in the banking industry and great support from staff at Exacta and at The United Way of the Plains, Shawna had some good ideas for fund raising and promoting individual giving.  The efforts paid off with a fantastic inaugural campaign and set the bar high for 2008.  After months of hard work, planning and preparation, Shawna and co-chairs HR Assistants Vicki Keimig and Michelle Voegeli got busy tallying the results.  Thanks to the generous nature of Exacta's employees, the campaign for 2008 was an even bigger success.

The preparation for the campaign started in the summer and culminated the second week of October with special events being held to raise money.  Employees participated in a free-throw shooting competition, bake sale and mystery photo contest.  On the final day, every Exacta employee who signed up for payroll deducted contributions received chances to win one of many raffle prizes donted by the company, employees, customers, suppliers and local businesses.  The list of prizes is too long to list, but special thanks goes to Makino for their donation of a Richard Petty Driving Experience package.

As the fun-filled week drew to a close, it was clear that Exacta employees stepped up their efforts in spite of recent economic difficulties in the aerospace industry.  At a time when there is much uncertainty and many in our community are finding themselves in need, the Exacta team really came through.  When the final count was taken the numbers surprised us all.  Employee participation was up 22% and employee giving increased by an amazing 225%!  Shawna summed up the company's thoughts on the results "We are so proud of our employees' generosity and commitment to supporting our community through United Way and are already looking forward to next year's campaign!

4/6/2007 — Exacta Aerospace was honored to attend the rollout of the first Vertical Fin for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner in Frederickson, Washington on March 14th. Exacta was one of 14 partners involved in this project and we currently have long term contracts to continue the support of this program. We have approximately 40 different part numbers feeding this assembly and I am sure almost everyone in our facility was involved at some point on this project. We would like to say thanks for all the extra efforts in making this possible. The opportunity for Exacta to be recognized by Boeing on a project of this nature is a huge opportunity for all of us.

9/1/2006 — Exacta welcomes another new member to the family this month. We added a 12-30-10 Brown and Sharpe Global Advantage CMM. This machine is one of the fastest and most accurate on the market. It will allow us to drastically reduce inspection time by comparing customer supplied 3D models to the actual cut part dimensions. With the new wave of 3D digital drawings we will see 2D drawings become a thing of the past in the near future.

9/1/2006 — Exacta adds a new Mazak 200-4ST Mill/Turn. This machine has dual spindles, an upper and lower turret and 40 slot tool changer. A variety of milling/turning tools makes this one of the most flexible 5-axis machining centers on the market. The Matrix4 control is the first of its kind in the state of Kansas and we are excited about the new technology. It will allow us to be more competitive on parts requiring more than one operation needing either mill or turn work.

Each year The Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce holds a gala event to honor local companies and individuals for outstanding achievement in a variety of categories.  At  Honor's Night 2008 presented by Metro Courier, Inc. the Chamber will present Spirit Aerosystem's President and CEO Jeff Turner with the most prestigious of these awards, The Uncommon Citizen Award.  Turner joins other aviation heavyweights Velma Wallace (1998), Lionel Alford (1992) and Olive Ann Beech (1976) in receiving the award.  Exacta Aerospace is pleased to be among a group of aviation companies including The Boeing Company, Cessna Aircraft and Yingling Aviation in sponsoring the event.

On May 21, 2008 The Boeing Company debuted the new 777Freighter in a ceremony attended by Boeing employees, airline customers, community officials and representatives from key suppliers.  Exacta Aerospace was honored to be among the suppliers invited to attend the celebration.  Prior to the event, Boeing Supply Chain Strategy group hosted a luncheon in Everett, WA for the representatives from the suppliers.

In his remarks to the group at the event, Larry Loftis, VP for the 777 program said "Today is a tribute to the dedication and hard work our employees, customers and suppliers put into making this airplane a reality."  Exacta's General Manager Ben Voegeli praised the efforts of the Exacta team "Any new aircraft program comes with a new set of  unique challenges.  Our team again has risen to the occasion to meet the demand of the program and assist in getting this aircraft to rollout on schedule.  Exacta worked closely with Boeing in finding ways to meet or exceed the expectations of this valued customer."

To date, Boeing has 78 firm orders from 11 customers for the 777 Freighter.  The new freighter will begin the flight test and certification program in early summer with the first aircraft scheduled to be delivered to launch customer Air France  in the fourth quarter of this year.

5/1/2006 — In the next few weeks you will see a couple new faces joining the Exacta Team. We are moving forward on a Strategic Outsourcing project and have hired a manager along with an assistant to get the project up and rolling. Exacta has set some very aggressive goals for growth and without continuing to expand our outsourcing efforts this will not be possible. This group will assist us in growing and managing a strong supply base, which will only strengthen Exacta’s roots as a company. Our goals with outsourcing are not to eliminate jobs, but only to help grow our company. We are currently doing make/buy decisions on all new work as it comes in the door. Our intention is to keep work in house that fits our core competencies and shop load. Exacta has been successful in winning several new work packages that are currently going through this process.