During the past several months, a number of new and exciting things have happened at Northern Precision Products, Inc. (NPP). The owners of NPP are continuing to invest to further enhance customer satisfaction, grow the business, and maintain high quality standards. The purpose of this news release is to update you about some of these recent activities and accomplishments.

• Ann Buchanan - Ann's key roles will be in estimating/quoting, scheduling and helping implement our company’s new ERP system. She is a University of Michigan graduate and has many years of experience in production planning and control including scheduling, materials management, costing, and ERP system functions.
• Chuck Cooper - Chuck will oversee and manage our CNC operations, includ- ing the implementation of our new CAD/CAM system. Before joining NPP, he had 20 years of work experience as a manufacturing technician, CNC machine trainer and production supervisor.
• Dan DuBreuil - Dan’s role will involve managing the maintenance of produc- tion equipment. His background includes eight years of experience building and repairing heavy equipment and performing fleet maintenance.
• Ann Swanson - Ann joins NPP as our receptionist and accounting assistant. Ann has more than 12 years of experience as a customer service representa- tive and administrative assistant.
• Robert Miller and Robert Hurst - They have more than 50 years of combined machining experience, principally as set-up leads on Acme Gridley screw machines, which are used extensively at NPP. Robert Miller (first shift) and Robert Hurst (second shift) will each assume a lead role in helping NPP management further improve machine set-up, troubleshooting, training and overall machining operations.

We are excited to announce that NPP has just purchased two 2-inch Acme Gridley machines. These machines now allow us to make products up to 2 inches in diameter (2-inch round, 1-7/16-inch square, and 1-¾-inch hex).

Due to the addition of key personnel, we are expanding our office space with a building addition of approximately 1,500 square feet. This building project is currently underway and should be completed by June 1. The new addition will result in five extra offices, a new reception area and a large conference/training room.

We announced in January 2007 the creation of our machinist Apprenticeship Program. The purpose of this program is to identify mechanically inclined personnel and train them over a period of three to five years on screw machine operations and set-up activities. At this time we have five people enrolled in the training program.

We were awarded with the TS 16949:2002 quality certification on March 15. Led by Dick Warner (NPP Quality Manager), NPP personnel worked hard during 2006 to further streamline and improve our quality processes, procedures and work methods in order to meet the stringent demands of this certification. This certification places NPP in an elite class of TS certified organizations.

As you can see, NPP is excited about our future and the opportunities facing us. The owners of NPP will continue to invest going forward to further improve our ability to be the best machining supplier possible.

If you have any questions about the information presented in this news release please call Mary Nagengast or Bernie Nagengast at 231-768-4435.