OCEANSIDE -- A smoothly flowing manufacturing line showcases business at its most visible. Parts come in, are progressively machined and assembled, and the completed products go out.

That process captivates Andrew Gale, the new chief executive of Veridiam Inc. A contract manufacturer with locations in Oceanside, Poway, El Cajon and Costa Rica, Verdiam makes medical implants, nuclear power plant components and semiconductor testing equipment.

"My first job was as an operations accountant, and I was on the production floor," Gale said. "I absolutely fell in love with manufacturing. I loved the orderliness of a well-run manufacturing operation, and loved the transformational process of making something tangible."

That orderliness is plain to see at the gleaming operation at Veridiam's Oceanside location. An array of gray and blue-topped automated lathes spreads out across one portion of the manufacturing floor, separated from other machinery by wide swaths of open, shining white flooring.

The high degree of automation helps keep manufacturing local and not outsourced overseas, Gale said. Labor is a relatively small component of manufacturing, and other costs are close to equal.

Some companies prefer to buy American-made components for products such as medical devices, Gale said, because they get an extra degree of assurance that quality control standards and government regulations are met.

A first and enduring love

Chance landed Gale in manufacturing.

Educated in finance and accounting, Gale was hired right out of college by oscilloscope-maker Tektronix, in Beaverton, Ore. Gale saw the manufacturing process as part of his Tektronix orientation.

Later on, during a short stint at Sharp Electronics, Gale found a far different environment.

"They were going to be building a semiconductor fabrication facility, and it got mothballed," Gale said. "We had all these electrical engineers doing designs, but there was no product, and I just went nuts. I had to get out of there."

For the last 10 years, Gale was president and chief executive of C-Tech Industries, a maker of heavy-duty pressure washing equipment and wastewater treatment systems. Before that, Gale served as C-Tech's chief operating officer and chief financial officer.

The pressure washers are high-powered industrial machines that were used, among other things, to clean beaches after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, Gale said.

"We provided that, and those things were selling for $25,000 to $30,000 a pop," Gale said. "Very different from what you would see at Home Depot."

Growth by acquisition

After more than a decade at C-Tech, Gale began looking for a new job. At the same time, Veridiam was also looking for a new chief executive. The combination clicked. Gale started at Veridiam about a month ago.

As a newcomer, Gale admits he's still got a ways to go before he really knows the company. But some things are apparent even now.

C-Tech is a quite different company from Veridiam, Gale said. While C-Tech makes heavy industrial equipment of its own design, as a contract manufacturer Veridiam makes items to the specifications of customers.

What both companies have in common is a corporate history of growth through acquisitions. Gale said his history of incorporating those acquisitions will help him manage Veridiam, which was recently created from four independent companies.

Veridiam itself is owned by WHI Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm. Such firms raise money from investors, but are not publicly traded.

WHI brought Veridiam into being in November, 2005, when it bought El Cajon-based Carpenter Special Products Corp. and renamed it.

In November, 2006, Veridiam bought Advanced EDM Automation of Poway. In September, 2007, Veridiam bought Allied Swiss Screw Inc. of Oceanside and Costa Rica-based Point Technologies.

"The businesses in many ways have continued to run fairly autonomously," Gale said. "For example, this building (in Oceanside) has the previous name, subtitled under Veridiam. It was felt by the board of directors we needed to do a much better job of creating a single culture, a single program with which to drive the business forward."

Practical considerations

At C-Tech, Gale said, he managed integrating eight acquisitions into the parent company, decided which brands to drop because of overlap, and standardized business practices.

Veridiam's integration can only go so far, Gale said, because the lines of business are different and because of practical considerations.

For example, Gale said, it isn't feasible to bring all the San Diego County operations together in one location. Some of the equipment in the El Cajon location, which makes nuclear power plant components, would be prohibitively expensive to move.

Gale said he is buying a home in San Diego County Estates in Ramona to be equally accessible to all three San Diego County locations, or as he quipped, "equally inconvenient."

"I was spoiled for the last 11 years. I had a one-mile commute with two stop signs," he said.

However, Gale said he's glad to still live on the West Coast.

"Most of the opportunities I looked at were in the Midwest or Rust Belt area," Gale said. "While I could have gone and been happy, it's pretty tough to beat the weather out here."

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com. Read his blogs at bizblogs.nctimes.com