Nu-Way Industries had previously tried to migrate from its legacy Meridian file management system to SolidWorks PDM. The earlier attempts had failed, as the challenge was bigger than switching software. Engineering records had to be migrated, data structures mapped, and workflows, user permissions, and CAD integration aligned, all without disrupting daily operations across Nu-Way’s precision sheet metal manufacturing environment. Before that was done, keeping engineering and production aligned on current revisions was a more manual process, increasing the risk that a part could be built from an outdated revision.
That changed when Steve Elliott, now Nu-Way’s Vice President of Engineering & Estimating, took ownership of the project. He led the system architecture, executed the full data migration across engineering records, and stabilized the platform after launch. The result was a reliable, scalable document management platform that remains Nu-Way’s standard today.
For Elliott, the project reflects a broader pattern across his time with the company: replacing improvisation with systems that scale.
“The better, more economical decision, and the one with the least amount of resistance, was to switch to the SolidWorks PDM vault system,” Elliott said. “Since we were already a heavy user of SolidWorks, it was an easy decision to go through with that.”
Seven years later, the impact is clear. “We’re now seven years into using it, and in the seven years that it’s been running, we’ve never had a catastrophic failure of the vault system,” he said. “It’s common use and common practice here at Nu-Way. Nobody thinks about the old system that much anymore.”
A Career Built on the Shop Floor
Elliott has spent nearly 25 years in precision sheet metal manufacturing, including 21 years at Nu-Way Industries. Over that time, his role has steadily expanded from Industrial Engineer to Industrial Engineering Manager, New Product Development Engineering Manager, and now Vice President of Engineering & Estimating.
That progression gave him a detailed view of how engineering decisions show up on the shop floor.
“Being hands-on all these years has been the biggest teacher,” Elliott said. “I got to spend a lot more time out on the floor in the first 15 years of my career, seeing things done in fabrication firsthand. All of that has been incredibly helpful where I’m at today.”
Earlier in his career, Elliott led the setup and optimization of high-volume assembly lines, including workflow design, line balancing, tooling, fixtures, and detailed work instructions. He supported large-scale production programs such as heavy copper busbar battery rack assemblies, helping enable throughput of up to 18 units per day using properly balanced production lines and tooling.
He also established dedicated assembly cells for complex precision sheet metal programs, including stainless steel oven door production and Department of Defense (DoD)-related builds, and engineered a robotic handling system for aluminum motorcycle fuel tanks that automated the internal sealing process.
That hands-on foundation continues to shape how he leads today. He understands that scalable systems must be practical, usable, and grounded in the realities of production.
As his responsibilities have expanded, so has the nature of the work. “Now it’s about assigning the right tasks to the right people who are qualified to do those projects,” Elliott said. “Learning to delegate and trust has been another transition, and so has helping others develop where there is opportunity for them to grow.”
A Standards-First Leadership Style
In his current role, Elliott is focused on bringing more structure to the decisions that shape a job before it reaches production.
He is driving the development of standardized work across engineering and estimating, with an emphasis on improving consistency, accuracy, and scalability. That initiative includes formalizing documentation, procedures, and onboarding materials so the organization relies less on tribal knowledge and more on shared processes.
The effort also connects directly to downstream performance. Elliott is aligning engineering methods and estimating practices with cost, scheduling, production performance, and ERP execution, including improved integration with Epicor.
For those changes to hold, the people closest to the process have to be involved in shaping and maintaining them.
“I prioritize open communication with my team, ensuring managers are informed, involved, and part of the decision-making process to drive better outcomes,” Elliott said.
That approach gives standardization a practical purpose. It creates clearer ownership across the leadership team and gives the people doing the work a stake in how it gets done.
Using Technology to Strengthen the System
Elliott is also applying that systems mindset to Nu-Way’s estimating platform and internal technology. He is leading enhancements to Paperless Parts to better reflect Nu-Way’s manufacturing processes, cost structures, and quoting inputs, including faster, more accurate raw material pricing updates.
For Elliott, the value is not simply moving from paper to digital. It is about reducing ambiguity and improving the consistency of the decisions that shape cost, capacity, and competitiveness.
“With analog quoting systems, you’re really using interpretation,” Elliott said. “And with interpretation in human beings comes various answers. Paperless helps pull some of the ambiguity out of quoting.”
That clarity matters because estimating decisions affect the entire operation. A quoted rate has to be competitive, but it also has to reflect what the company can realistically produce.
“It’s forcing a revisit to core estimating functions and making sure we have a dialed-in estimating rate that remains competitive among our competitors,” Elliott said. “Everybody has a personal objective, but you have to keep the company in the front of mind. We won’t be competitive if we constantly cut rates in half.”
Similarly, Elliott is using AI-assisted code generation to support development inside Paperless Parts’ P3L scripting environment, allowing the team to iterate on system improvements more quickly and reduce reliance on external programming resources. He is also applying AI to documentation-heavy work, including SOP development, technical communication summaries, and knowledge capture across engineering and estimating.
For Elliott, the value of AI is practical because it gives teams another way to improve internal systems, capture information more efficiently, and solve problems faster without being limited by traditional technical barriers.
“I’m not a programmer. I’m an engineer,” Elliott said. “The advent of AI has been a huge lift for a non-programmer like me. It has made many things possible that I could only get done through contracted services before.”
That includes writing scripts for SolidWorks PDM automation, creating tools to help process large customer drawing packages, and modifying Paperless Parts code more efficiently.
“What really started to knock down obstacles to improving software and workflows was having AI help me understand the programming side,” Elliott said. “Now I’m building my own scripts, building my own executables, and modifying P3L code.”
Building for Scale
Looking ahead, the next stage of improvement is stronger integration across engineering, estimating, and production. That means continued investment in technology and automation, faster and more reliable quoting, better data, and more standardized processes.
It also means building an organization where teams take greater ownership and collaborate across fewer silos. After helping analyze company-wide employee feedback, Elliott has focused early efforts on documentation, training, and cross-functional understanding.
“I expect leaders and teams to take full responsibility for their work, follow through on commitments, and step up to challenges even when they fall outside their traditional roles,” he said.
The goal is a more scalable operation, with systems that support better decisions closer to the work.
If you’re looking for a precision sheet metal manufacturing partner for a new program or existing product, Nu-Way’s team is ready to help. Contact us to discuss your project needs.