Shop process improvement
Find the practical friction in how work moves through the shop, then improve process control without pretending the floor works like a spreadsheet.
Edmonton, Alberta | Professional bio
Manufacturing leadership, shop-floor experience, and practical systems work.
I came up through the tools: laborer, CNC operator, machinist apprentice, lead hand, manager, and now Managing Director at Akrivis Machine. Most of my work has sat where machining, operations, quality, automation, software, and business decisions all overlap.
Snapshot
A short professional bio built around the work itself.
This site is mainly here as a brief professional bio for people looking up my name and wanting a clear sense of my background.
I came up through the tools and now lead Akrivis Machine. The work has mostly lived at the intersection of machining, process control, automation, software, quality, and the operating decisions around them.
Akrivis is the main proof point, but not the whole story. Over time the work has expanded from machining and operations into quality systems, automation, internal tools, and business planning.
Role
Managing Director at Akrivis Machine since 2018
Growth
Helped grow the business nearly 5x from 2018 to 2025
Quality
Led AS9100 system implementation and internal auditing work
Systems
Built tooling around documents, quoting, scheduling, and ERP foundations
Focus
Most of the work has lived between machining, operations, quality, automation, and internal systems.
Machine and process selection
Match equipment, tooling, automation, programming, and operator reality to the problem that actually needs solving.
Technical troubleshooting
Work through tooling, performance, complex strategies, programming, quality, and handoff problems until the path is clear.
Technical strategy
Own manufacturing technology, process engineering, automation, internal software, and the decisions that connect them into a business.
Quality is process control: knowing how the work is supposed to happen, seeing when it does not, and fixing the system instead of explaining around it.
Experience
A progression from laborer to Managing Director.
Managing Director, Akrivis Machine
Leads Akrivis Machine as a precision CNC manufacturing firm. From 2018 to 2025, helped grow revenue nearly 5x, expand from 3 machines to 9, move from 4,000 to 6,000 sq ft, and obtain AS9100 certification for the company while building web, portal, and operational systems around the business.
Production Manager, Blacklaw Manufacturing
Held production management responsibility in the Edmonton, Canada area.
General Manager, PLASMA-TEC Industries Ltd.
Advanced into general management after earlier design, lead hand, and apprenticeship roles with the company.
Machinist Lead / Design Specialist, PLASMA-TEC Industries Ltd.
Worked across research, design, and drafting design responsibilities in Edmonton.
Machining Lead Hand, PLASMA-TEC Industries Ltd.
Set up CNC milling and turning centers, with knowledge of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing.
Machinist Apprentice, PLASMA-TEC Industries Ltd.
Set up and operated 4-axis Mazak vertical mills, plus 2-axis Mazak and Doosan lathes.
Guardian, a ShawCor Company
Progressed through general laborer, laborer, field collar operator, and CNC machine operator roles, learning NDE basics, safe work practices, CNC operation, maintenance, G-code, and lathe programming.
Credentials
Formal training, audit credentials, and governance experience.
AS9100 Rev D & ISO 9001:2015 Internal Auditor
Axeon Corporation. Issued Sep 2025. Credential ID 162825999.
Machinist Red Seal
Government of Alberta. Issued Apr 2016. Credential ID 176990A.
NAIT Bachelor of Business Administration studies
Completed two years toward a BBA in Business Administration and Management.
NAIT Blue Seal, Business Competency
Completed in 2017.
NAIT Journeyperson Machinist
Machining Apprenticeship. 2012 - 2016.
Condominium Corporation Board
President from Mar 2018 to Apr 2022. Treasurer from Oct 2015 to Apr 2017 for a 234-unit building.
Selected Work
A few concrete examples from the work.
Operating growth
Built a stronger manufacturing business without losing the floor-level view.
Helped take Akrivis through nearly 5x revenue growth from 2018 to 2025 while expanding the facility, equipment base, and operating maturity.
Automation
Took an automated cell from idea to working production system.
Planned the concept, selected and procured the equipment, handled setup and programming, and built a cell using bar-fed turning, milling, handoff, and 7-axis robot unloading. Machine uptime moved from 8 hours to 22 hours with less operator input than manually manning the machine.
Architecture
Kept automation communication lean instead of overbuilding the interface.
Used built-in Okuma I/O variables and Modbus to handle robot communication natively. Avoided the cost and complexity of bolting on a secondary robot interface or unnecessary machine-side hardware.
Capability
Moved from 4-axis limits into 9-axis mill-turn capability.
Self-taught the use and programming of a 9-axis mill-turn, including ESPRIT programming with only light formal training.
Quality
Designed and implemented the AS9100 quality management system.
Drafted the core documentation, drove the internal auditing work, and built quality around process control so Akrivis could obtain certification with support from the broader team.
Systems
Built practical software around how manufacturing work actually moves.
Developed public machining calculators, thread calculation and reporting tools, and internal portal workflows for protected documents, orders, quotes, shipments, scheduling, CRM/RFQ activity, and asset tracking. The useful point is not the stack; it is understanding what the shop needs the software to do.
Decision tools
Connected technical work to business judgment.
Modeled the heavy financial and capacity decisions required to scale a manufacturing business. Built the math and forecasting tools to evaluate complex deals, plan machine capacity, and prove out the financial reality of shop expansions before spending the capital.
Contact
Contact
This page is mainly here as a professional bio. If you need to reach me, LinkedIn or email are the simplest options. I am not using this page for machining quote requests.