Joel Cardona and CJ Wright

Joel Cardona and Chris "CJ" Wright (camera shy) are electrical technicians who took ownership of the Chandler production operations known as VES (Valin Engineered Systems) in January 2022. They have been the foundation and taken on the responsibilities of a production manager without the title. They train and work hands-on with the production team ensuring that the products built are of the highest quality. Joel took ownership of the weekly production meeting, working directly with the Valin semiconductor customer service teams to update the production schedule several times a day. CJ maintains the production and quality standards by working directly with the warehouse, engineering, production, and quality teams.

Joel and CJ continually strive to meet production deadlines through efficiency and effective communication. They are flexible when production pull-ins are requested by customers. They communicate with the semiconductor customer service teams on what they can improve upon to allow for seamless collaboration between the two groups. They make the weekly production meetings not only constructive but much more pleasant in times made difficult by approaching deadlines or the end of quarters. They make the necessary adjustments to help customer service successfully manage an escalation without pushback or disagreement. Joel and CJ maintain a safe work environment and focus on this daily by conducting safety meetings, creating designated safety supply areas, applying signage, and performing 5S audits. They reorganized the shop by creating a leaner flow of materials, leaner workspaces for technicians, and better overall organization.

They lead by example by arriving early in the morning before their team, working extra hours, and on weekends if needed. Joel and CJ are a pleasure to work with and extremely professional. Even with the large volume of expedites and increased quantity of customer orders, they strive to go above and beyond to make customers happy and expedite parts whenever possible. They communicate when there is an issue and are very quick to respond. Joel and CJ have a great attitude and are team players through and through!