What We Actually Do

Most manufacturing problems aren't surprises. Someone saw them coming. A question got ignored. A gate never got built. A supplier part sat on a shelf until assembly day — then stopped production for two days over a $40 fitting.

Gradient Layerworks traces symptoms back to their origin and imposes structure where there is none. That's not consulting. That's capability creation.

Who You're Working With

Mac McKane has spent 17 years inside hardware and energy startups — not managing from a distance, but on the floor, at the machine, in the post-mortem.

He's developed in-house processes when no supplier could deliver. Prevented a $30k capital mistake with a two-hour inspection. Traced a $60k field repair crisis back to a single ignored question asked before the first build.

That's the pattern. Find the gap nobody named. Close it before it gets expensive.

What This Looks Like In Practice

Incoming parts failing at assembly? That's a missing gate, not a bad supplier.

Parts meet print but don't fit? That's a tolerance stackup nobody mapped.

Supplier quoting $5k and 8 weeks for one feature? That's a process that needs to be built, not bought.

Every engagement starts with what's actually true — not what the team assumes is true. From there the fix is usually obvious. Getting there is the work.

You're probably here because:

Something isn't working and the answer isn't obvious.

Your team is capable but the process has gaps nobody has named yet.

You're making decisions — about suppliers, capital, design — without the manufacturing context to make them confidently.

You need someone who has been inside this problem before.

Based in Kirkland, WA

Serving Seattle hardware teams and beyond.