CEO Today USA Awards

SPECIAL FEATURE - CALIFORNIA www.ceotodaymagazine.com 28 CEO Today USAAwards 2018 also invests in new capital equipment approximately every four months. This allows Naprotek to stay fresh with new technology and provide capacity for new customers that are onboarding. This is very exciting for the entire Naprotek team. What sets Naprotek as being a role model for women in business? Well, having become the Founder/CEO/President of one of the first Woman-Owned manufacturing companies in Silicon Valley, that alone has postured both me and Naprotek as a role model in the eyes of many people. As our success has grown, so has the recognition. We host visits from colleges and other organizations, and young women demonstrate a strong interest in the history of the organization. They love to hear the story of how my dreams began, and the path that brought Naprotek to the success we enjoy today. How would you describe your experience working in Silicon Valley? Silicon Valley has been good to me, and very good to Naprotek. When I chose to branch out on my own and open the doors of Naprotek, my first customers were people that trusted me, my manufacturing skills, and my passion for excellence. These same customers have been with Naprotek for 23 years… that says a lot! These customers have been loyal, and we have grown together. In addition, I work closely with the City of San Jose, and the Work2Future program which focuses on mentoring and bringing young talent into the manufacturing industry. They also concentrate on training and educating the next generation. Silicon Valley has been fast- paced, highly technical, intellectually stimulating, and it is my pleasure to give back. How does Naprotek maintain the standard of its products and solutions? Passion! Passion for servicing the electronic industry; passion for quality and passion for on-time delivery. Naprotek boasts a 99.8% quality and a 99.3% on-time delivery rate. We have built quality into our processes, including optical first article stations, X-ray, and other value-added services. It also is a business decision to continually reinvest profits back to our team, and back into the organization in terms of capital equipment and growth. It is very important that Naprotek remains on the leading edge of technology all the time. Our customers depend on this. It is this methodology that led us to win the 2018 Circuits Assembly Award and 2018 Global Technology Award. I was also honored to be awarded 2016 CEO of the year by Acquisition International. What is the vision or mission that the company lives by? My goal has always been for Naprotek to be the best in the industry. We are a proud team. We are Silicon Valley’s High-Reliability Manufacturing Supplier. We want Naprotek to be the one you call when you need to meet tight deadlines, with complex manufacturing needs, and where quality matters. We want to be the supplier you depend on! If you remember only this about Naprotek, remember that we strive for phenomenal customer satisfaction, superior quality and mandatory on-time delivery. How has the technology at Naprotek advanced in the last few years? Naprotek serves a broad spectrum of technical market segments. The company is certified to manufacture classified military programs, aerospace including space addendum, medical applicationsutilizingISO13485, along with IPC 610 Class 3, JSTD-001 class 3 and AS9100. We recently implemented DFAR compliance with the latest Federal Standards of Cybersecurity, allowing us to support our military programs with the strongest confidence in our data security. Is there anything exciting in the works that you can share with us? We have been focusing on transitioning our factory into a “Smart Factory,” allowing us to track our throughput at a granular level. Additionally, an integral part of our planned growth will be to automate as much of the factory as possible. Yes, this means robotics… What goals do you have for Naprotek in the years ahead? Naprotek is consistently evolving to adapt with the ever-growing industry. We are consistently looking five years out, asking ourselves what’s next. Expanding into additional markets ultimately means growth and to keep up with the latest engineering releases, as well as keeping up with process improvement to scale it to the latest technology available in the market. Q Q Q Q Q Q Q “My vision was to create something outstanding: A place where engineers could rest assured that quality and on-time delivery would be better than any place in the industry; a place where service would be outstanding, and where the employees would feel at home, and stay and grow with the organisation.”