Megan Hyatt is celebrating her first year at Groov-Pin as the production manager at PTC in Rhode Island. PTC is Groov-Pin’s subsidiary that manufactures high-end, close-tolerance, precision-machined components for a variety of industries and applications.
“I have a hand in every bucket,” she said. “I look at all customer documents and create work orders and schedules based on that information. I make sure the floor supervisors have everything they need; even things like oil.
Megan sees our manufacturing process from start to finish. “I push the process along through secondary operations like cleaning, quality checks, and into the shipping department,” she explained. “I also make sure the shipping department has everything they need from boxes to bubble wrap; all of the shipping materials.”
The role comes with its challenges including working around the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “My biggest challenge is coordinating the arrival of materials because we’re still feeling the effects of COVID. You still see special materials or sizes with very long lead times and higher prices,” she explained.
Megan plans around potential setbacks as much as possible. “You can do all that you can to plan in advance and get the order on the schedule for the mill and they can be on time, but then you can get delivery delays,” she said. “We’re definitely seeing longer transit times.”
Manufacturing has been Megan’s world for a while now. When she graduated college, she found a print ad for a position as a scheduler at a company in Connecticut. “I learned everything I needed to know about manufacturing there,” she explained. “I learned to use Visual, which is the ERP software we use here at Groov-Pin.”
In addition to industry-specific skills, Megan’s organizational skills are critical for her role in production. “I’m very organized and I thrive on routine. If you’re prepared, you’re able to keep ahead of all incoming orders and PRE address any problems you can predict,” she explained. “Being organized is helpful anywhere, but especially here. In manufacturing, problems big and small come up every day.”
While being involved in many different processes can be a challenge, it’s also what Megan enjoys about working at Groov-Pin. “It’s a small company and that means everyone is involved. There a lot of helping hands and people that have a lot of information and knowledge to share,” she said.
Outside of work, you can find Megan in the great outdoors fishing and breaking in her new four-wheeler!