Hayley Lukach
Hayley Lukach is a Production Supervisor at VitalPath in Cokato, Minnesota, where she oversees personnel, scheduling, and production processes in the medical manufacturing industry. In her role, she coordinates teams and equipment to ensure that high-quality medical components are produced efficiently and meet customer and patient needs. Her leadership focuses on maintaining quality standards while improving productivity and collaboration across manufacturing operations.
Lukach has more than a decade of experience in manufacturing, beginning her career as a machine operator before advancing into leadership roles. Prior to joining VitalPath, she spent over seven years as a Team Lead at Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, where she developed expertise in team leadership, process improvement, and production management. Her professional strengths include workflow optimization, continuous improvement practices such as Lean and 5S, and using data-driven insights to improve efficiency and manufacturing outcomes.
She earned an associate’s degree from North Hennepin Community College and has continued to build her professional skills through certifications, including a Lean Practitioner Certification from Manufacturers Alliance. Lukach began working in customer service roles during high school and college, experiences that shaped her people-first leadership approach. Today, she focuses on supporting her team, improving manufacturing systems, and ensuring that the medical parts her team produces help meet the needs of patients.
• Lean Practitioner Certification
• Supervision Fundamentals Certification
• North Hennepin Community College- Associate's
• Manufacturers Alliance
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to persistence and resilience. I've been working since I was 14 years old, starting in customer service roles throughout high school and college, and then getting into manufacturing where I became an operator. I just really loved it, but I really wanted to work with the people and help people. The manufacturing business in general is inspiring - I always drive to want to make things better for the people and for the business side as well. My customer service roles throughout my life have definitely helped build me to be the manager that I am today. Having 11 years in the medical manufacturing field, I've really grown to respect the animal that it is.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came from my dad, who really instilled work ethic into me. He would always say, everybody puts their pants on one foot at a time. As a young woman in the management field, that certainly helped me, because I'm not gonna lie, it's harder for women, especially in manufacturing - there's so few of us. But I guess that kind of helped instill some confidence there.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women entering the industry is to be confident and persistent and strive to be an example and source of motivation for other women pursuing careers in manufacturing.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges in manufacturing is that it remains a male-dominated field with relatively few women represented in leadership and production roles. At the same time, staffing pressures and the need to wear multiple hats create opportunities to improve workflow, increase efficiency, and optimize yields, margins, and production capacity.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Persistence, resilience, and a strong work ethic are values that guide both my professional and personal life, along with a commitment to helping others and continuously improving. Outside of work, I value spending time with my two daughters, staying active through volleyball, traveling and hiking, and enjoying simple moments like running barefoot outdoors.