CONNSTEP is pleased to premiere a new quarterly column profiling leaders in the Connecticut manufacturing community - sharing their thoughts, insights and predictions.

John Kornegay, President
Kamatics Corporation, Bloomfield

After starting 20 years ago as chief engineer here, I became president in 1999. My job now is chief cheerleader, to make it possible for my team to do their job in the best way, with the right tools, the right procedures, and the right resources.

We're always creating new products, new applications, and new opportunities every year in response to new customer challenges. Higher reliability and lower maintenance are always the goals.

An engineer's job is never boring. There is always another opportunity, another challenge, and another product to be fixed or improved.

The key to staff longevity and continuity is a focus on people, so that they are always challenged and rewarded for their work.

Workforce issues have been a top priority for us in the last decade and will continue to be critical in the next. The state and CONNSTEP have done a lot to create and groom the next generation to realize the great potential of a career in manufacturing.

We need to dispel the myths of manufacturing. It's not routine drudgery. It's definitely not dirty and grimy. In our plant, manufacturing is technically challenging, always changing, and incredibly rewarding.

Manufacturing is exciting. It's fun to make something new, to create a product you can touch that has such widespread impact.

I try to spend 25-50% of every week walking around the company and talking to people on the plant floor, in the labs, and in the offices. I ask about their problems and where and how I can help. I want to be a catalyst, to get people to think and to speak up. I learn something every time.

John Kornegay

Lean implementations require constant thinking and questioning and non-stop improvement, because you can never be completely efficient.

The hardest part of my job is when we have to tell an employee that the company is not the right match for him or her. Everyone brings his or her own unique value, and we want it to fit, but sometimes it just doesn't.

I've been very fortunate to be able to follow the path that interested me most and generally have it turn out okay…. maybe more times than I deserved. Everyone may not have agreed with me along the way, and sometimes the short-term results were not always optimal, but in the long run, I've had a really good time.

  The most important thing about work is that it should be fun. Fun can be hard work. But it should be enjoyable. If it's not, you should find something else to do. Every minute may not be fun, but on average, it sure better be.

I'm an incredible optimist. But I'm still worried about the economy today. I know how cyclical the economy is. Yet I'm concerned that we're talking ourselves into making the situation worse than it should be or needs to be. I know things will turn out all right. I just don't know how long before we'll reach bottom and turn around.

I learned humility when I joined the Navy after graduating from college. As a 22-year-old ensign, receiving salutes from subordinates who were twice my age, I quickly learned that rank did not indicate ability, and a title did not equate to doing a job. I learned everything about my job from them, and knew I had to support them and run interference for them. I was constantly reminded how little I actually knew. Without your staff, you have nothing. It's our job to support them.

As an engineer, I have an abiding desire to work on airplane systems and create bearings that require less maintenance and last longer. Some might say that means our customers won't need us as much. But I just think it means we have to continually improve.

I will some day retire from this job, but I'll never retire. I want to teach college or help companies.

Costs in Connecticut are so high that many think it's the wrong place for manufacturers to succeed. But geography is not the reason why companies succeed or fail. It's how we get better at doing things, how we become stronger from the inside that makes us better to compete on the outside.

Note:  CONNSTEP would like to thank John for being the first subject of our new column.  We appreciate his time and insights.