Florida MEP: Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2004

For more information please contact:
Gene Lussier
Board Chair, Florida MEP
321-939-4000

Florida MEP Helps Miami Company Get ISO Certification

MIAMI, FL - When Adelino Martins, president of JetAir Support Inc. of Miami decided to go after military contracts, he realized his company would have to become ISO certified in order to compete.

"In order to expand the opportunities for my company and to compete for contracts with government and overseas customers, I realized we had to become ISO certified or lose business," Martins said. "The question was how were we going to go about getting certified."

Martins was especially concerned because he feared his small business was facing a huge bill to get certified. "Independent contractors ask lots of money and I didn’t think I could afford it," he said. "Especially because the aviation business had hit rock bottom."

Fortunately, a friend of Martins pointed him toward the Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). "We are quite experienced in leading companies through the ISO certification process," said Maria Alfano, director of operations for the Florida MEP.

"We are also affordable for companies of all sizes," she added, "and our project managers were delighted to work with Adelino Martins and his employees."

ISO stands for "International Standards Organization," and certification signifies the company has met a rigorous set of internationally observed standards.

While the process to become ISO certified entailed a lot of hard work, time and effort, it was definitely worth it, according to Martins. "The MEP project manager worked with us for 10 months," he said. "He was knowledgeable and spoke Spanish, which definitely allowed him to communicate with many of my employees."

That was important Martins said because it made him feel confident that his employees were able to understand the ISO process and why it was important for the company to go through the process.

"The grandness and size of the project was impressive," Martins said, "and in the beginning it was difficult. But as time went by, we all began to understand where it was going and realized the structure of the program was similar to what is required by the FAA.

"About halfway through the process, I realized we were going to get this done thanks to the help of the MEP. It was a great feeling," Martins said, "because I knew our goal was within our reach."

JetAir Support Inc. is an FAA and JAA Certified Repair Station. The company has been located in Miami since 1992 and currently employs a workforce of 14 highly trained machinists.

A full-service repair station, JetAir provides welding, turning, broaching, grinding, cleaning and painting to MIL standards. JetAir currently serves U.S. airlines; foreign carriers and other repair and overhaul facilities and turbine engine parts suppliers.

"We have always been able to bid on government contracts and are approved to do work for the Department of Defense," Martins said, "but adding the ISO 9001:2000 certification has certainly been worth it."

In fact, since becoming certified, JetAir has created four new positions and has increased sales by $400,000. "We hear results like that all the time once a company becomes ISO certified," Alfano said. "The ISO procedures are useful because they create uniform practices within a company. All the way from receiving an order through the manufacturing and shipping process.

"It also empowers the employees to become involved in the process and understand what person in the company does and how they do it," she added.

Martins agreed. "The procedures have been very helpful, especially inside the front office," he said. "Because we are regulated by the FAA, we are used to doing things in a certain way within the shop, but we have expanded the uniform way in which we do business in our buying, our paperwork process and the way we do business every day." Best of all, with the Florida MEP’s assistance, it only took JetAir Support 10 months to complete the course and to receive its ISO certification.

"The people at Florida MEP were more than helpful," Martins said. "I would recommend the MEP to all companies."

The Florida MEP is an affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the U.S. Department of Commerce. The national MEP is a network of manufacturing extension centers that provide business and technical assistance to smaller manufacturers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Through MEP, manufacturers have access to more than 2000 manufacturing and business "coaches" whose job is to help firms make changes that lead to greater productivity, increased profits, and enhanced global competitiveness. For more information on the Florida MEP program call 321-939-4000.

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