Farewell, Kim!

Bittersweet news coming out of GIGAFLIGHT this week. We sent Kim Krueger – one of our founding members, friend and colleague – off to her happy retirement! All of us at GIGAFLIGHT are sad to see her go, but excited for her and her new adventures.

Kim began work at the age of 14, her first job was pulling and setting trap at a gun club in Muskego, Wisconsin. As her career evolved, she explored various avenues such as waitressing and cleaning, but decided there were different opportunities out there for her.

In 1988, she applied to Electronic Cable Specialists (ECS) and became their 12^th hire. There, as an assembler at the outset, she learned the specifics and technicalities of the aerospace and interconnect industry. She worked nearly 30 years at Carlisle/ECS eventually being promoted to Production Supervisor where she was responsible for 5 departments, overseeing 65 employees. Some of her duties included training, inspecting and setting up jobs, closely monitoring on-time delivery, 5S, FAIs, maintaining inventory levels, scheduling, testing and building prototypes, shelf life, soldering and writing reviews.

During Kim’s time at GIGAFLIGHT, she was fundamental to the foundations of our operation. She was one of the original five employees and was tasked with setting up our production procedures and warehouse organization/function, which was no easy assignment. Kim was very passionate about the product and worked with our Quality department to ensure everything was in line with our ISO and AS9100 certifications, as well as our FAA PMA designation. She also had a clear dedication to meeting customers’ demands and delivering on-time assembly work in no more than 2 days after the order was received. Once she knew it was time to retire, she gave us a year’s notice which allowed us to get additional team members in place. She trained these new members to her strict standards ensuring our high quality endures.

When asked what advice she has for anyone looking to enter into the aerospace cable industry she had this to say: “You must be a hard worker, very organized, level headed and willing to work alone or within a team. There are many opportunities to grow in this industry if you are willing to put in the work.”

We at GIGAFLIGHT have been very fortunate to have someone as talented and knowledgeable as Kim on our team from the beginning. With her skills and experience, she’s helped us become the company we are today and helped create and maintain the high standards we know those in aerospace expect. So, thank you for all of your hard work and good-bye for now, Kim. We hope you stop in and say hi from time to time!