I'm David McIntyre I started at Spinal Tech in June of 1993. I'm currently the floor production manager here at the Kentucky facility.
I started when I was 19 about a year after high school. I worked at the Cape Cod plant for about four years then transferred to the Kentucky plant to start that facility up with another co-worker and I worked as the manager there until about 2004 moved back to Cape Cod to the Cape Cod facility and then about 2005 I transferred back to the Kentucky facility so I've worked in both facilities twice. I was there the day the first brace went out the first day on the Cape Cod facility and then I was there on the first day the first brace went out at the Kentucky facility.
There's probably 20 people currently at the Kentucky facility that I hired a long time ago that have grown with the company as well. Yes we have evolved with the CAD over the years but there's still a lot of hands-on work that needs to be done even in the mold room, not everything's a CAD. We still need guys to pull the liners, still need guys to cook and pull the plastic, still need guys to sand the padding and the Bostons and the Providences. We still have guys marking braces, still a lot of hands-on work with the grinding and buffing all those things still need to get done.
I mainly work in the mold room modifying the molds, the casts. Scoliosis bracing Bostons, Providences, we do Rosenbergers, Wilmingtons by CAD, by cast, by measurement.
Then on the night shift I'll flow out to the floor work with the, just kind of move the flow work around work with the fellas wherever I can help cut braces. Grind, buff, drill holes, QC, I'll do some quality control before it hits shipping. We have a little check mark to get the right straps, to get the right loops, does it have the correct abdominal size, rib build up things of that nature.
While there is a lot of work that goes into working on and manufacturing a brace in only one day's time, over the years we've tightened up a few processes. We have plenty of guys and girls on the floor that can get it done in that amount of time. It's kind of amazing because we have customer service, CAD, mold, plastic, finish, strapping, quality control, so it's going through about seven to eight different departments and yet we can still get it out a quality brace on a plane for the next day.
Yeah the reason why I've lasted as long as I have is because of Jim. He brought me up like I said from the bottom, worked with me a lot. I'm just trying to make them proud. He's a very gracious individual. He's done a lot for a lot of people, so a lot of people want to work hard for Jim.
Probably the best part of my job is helping people and it especially hit me when my kids were growing up and I would be working on an order for an eight-year-old girl or an 11 year old boy, you know some of these kids have a pretty nasty curve but it's nice knowing that we're helping them out.
