Mack Tool & Engineering

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Mack Tool & Engineering: Innovating Workforce Strategy to Drive Precision Manufacturing

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Certain professions inherently command respect — doctors, pilots, military generals. Their titles stand on their own, woven into the fabric of society. But few realize that these respected fields owe much of their success to the cutting-edge industrial design, rigorous engineering, and flawless manufacturing that enables their vital equipment. Behind these indispensable industries stand manufacturers like Mack Tool & Engineering, who ensure life-saving and mission-critical tools are made with the highest standards of precision and quality.

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Mack Tool is a precision machine shop, specializing in producing highly engineered components for the aerospace and medical industries. Their work supports essential equipment that quite literally protects and saves lives. A single failure in quality could jeopardize patients or compromise a mission, so their commitment to excellence is unwavering.

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However, finding skilled, dependable labor to meet that standard has grown increasingly difficult. In response, Mack Tool turned to Veryable, an on-demand labor platform that is reshaping how they source and train operators, ensuring the company maintains both quality and flexibility in a challenging labor market.

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Adapting to a Changing Labor Market

Traditionally, Mack Tool relied on highly skilled full-time employees, but in recent years, hiring and retaining enough of these operators became a struggle. Mack Tool’s Business Manager, Mickey Raynlha, explained:

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“There’s a whole new generation that wants that work-life balance. They want to make their own choices. They want to explore new things. Not everybody can work a 9-to-5, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable. We needed to find a way to engage that workforce.”

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With Veryable’s help, Mack Tool implemented a strategy to break down some of their highly skilled positions into entry-level roles that could be quickly taught. By offloading repetitive or simpler tasks — such as loading machines, performing criteria checks, or basic deburring — to on-demand operators, Mack Tool freed their skilled employees to focus on the advanced tasks that demanded their expertise.

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“If they don’t have to stop and do criteria checks on every part that comes out, then they’re able to produce more parts on the machine,” Raynlha said.

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This approach has helped balance the demands of precision work with the realities of today’s workforce — a workforce that increasingly prioritizes flexibility and autonomy.

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Building a Skilled, Flexible Labor Pool

With Veryable, Mack Tool built a labor pool of over 20 operators to handle everything from assembly to deburring to cleaning — and even some more skilled positions when needed.

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“All of our jobs rotate through the shop, and the ops will follow those bigger jobs. We always start people on the ground — cleaning, deburring, assembly. That work is a constant,” explained Eli Campbell, Mack Tool’s Plant Manager.

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As these operators return for repeated opportunities, they get to know the equipment, the shop floor, and the workflow — effectively becoming a trusted extension of the Mack Tool team.

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“Some of our Veryable operators have been with us for over a year,” said Campbell. “They’re integral parts of my team now. They know exactly what’s expected of them.”

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This familiarity means less ramp-up time, fewer mistakes, and a much smoother path for Mack Tool to meet strict quality standards, even during unexpected surges in demand.

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A Win-Win Solution

For the operators themselves, the partnership with Mack Tool offers a unique chance to build skills, earn a living, and maintain flexibility. Many have taken advantage of the opportunity to learn from experienced machinists on the floor, benefiting from on-the-job mentorship without committing to a rigid schedule or a traditional career path.

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“People want to work on their terms,” Raynlha observed. “Veryable makes that possible. And it makes sense for us too — we don’t need to hire a full-time employee every time we see a spike in demand.”

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For more skilled operators, Veryable has also provided opportunities to pick up shifts at Mack Tool when work is slow in their home shops, giving them consistent income without leaving their primary employer.

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“It’s not just new generation workers coming in,” Campbell said. “It’s also the older, skilled generation that still has those skills but just needs more hours. Veryable helps us put that talent to use.”

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Seamless Operations, Superior Results

Veryable’s model allows Mack Tool to match the right worker to the right task at the right moment, without going through long, bureaucratic processes. Campbell described how this dramatically increased their speed and agility:

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“Veryable is amazing. They make everything easy. They set the dashboard, they show you how to use it, how to find your operators, and you have somebody to walk through it with you.”

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Because Mack Tool could train and build a bench of trusted workers, they now have a reliable “second string” of talent on standby — ready to step in whenever needed.

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“It’s really a no-risk situation,” Campbell added. “As long as you can build a good pool of people, which we have, it’s better than anything else right now.”

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The Power of Partnership

In the end, Mack Tool’s experience with Veryable demonstrates a powerful new way forward for American manufacturing: a partnership that supports workers in building skills and independence, while helping manufacturers to maintain world-class quality and meet tight production timelines no matter what while simultaneously controlling costs

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By combining precision engineering with a flexible, resilient workforce strategy, Mack Tool continues to protect the industries — and the lives — that depend on their products. With Veryable’s on-demand labor model, they’ve turned a labor shortage into a competitive advantage, proving that innovation doesn’t just happen on the shop floor, but also in the way people are engaged and empowered to do their best work.