MEP helps Truston achieve ISO certification, expand business

Truston Industries has a lot to be proud of. As one of the largest suppliers of port security barriers worldwide, the company designs, fabricates and installs custom solutions for the marine, energy and industrial markets.

They recently added a new accolade to their list: ISO 9001:2015 certification. For help navigating the process, they turned to the West Virginia Manufacturing Partnership, a NIST MEP network affiliate, which is housed in the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University.

“Truston had been working on bringing its quality management system into compliance for more than a year; it was a grind,” said Eric Jacobs, president of Truston Technologies. “We turned to the West Virginia Manufacturing Extension Partnership for assistance.”

“ISO certification demonstrates a company’s commitment to quality,” said Jerry Biser, director of the WVMEP. “Companies that achieve it can grow their businesses since most international procurements have a requirement for ISO certification for supplier quality management systems.”

Biser and his team evaluated the company and performed an ISO 9001 review of the current quality management system, noting additional requirements needed to pass the certification audit.

“We provided QMS training with the management team, reviewed existing standard operating procedures, developed additional required documentation and served as lead auditor in support of the quality management system,” Biser said. “Our results indicated that Truston was ready for the ISO 9001:2015 certification audit and we assisted them in selecting and scheduling an accredited third-party registrar.”

The ISO 9001 implementation was completed within seven months and Truston was granted certification with no non-conformances, making them the only ISO9001 certified port security barrier provider in the world.

“MEP came highly recommended to us by a representative from the Governor’s Workforce Program,” said Jacobs. “We had ambitious goals to become ISO certified quickly; we started the process in October 2016 and became ISO registered in April 2017. This was part of a larger plan to grow our business. MEP helped us accomplish this task with minimal interruption in our everyday work schedule. ISO certification can be a very arduous process, however, with MEP providing the expertise, organization and guidance, the process was relatively painless.”

The larger plan – growing their business – became a reality earlier this month when Truston opened a new, expanded West Virginia location in the John D. Rockefeller IV Industrial Park, in Wyoming County. The company, which has its corporate offices in Maryland, has a long history in the county, having partnered for 14 years with Machine-Tech and then Rockview Leasing in Pineville. Truston remodeled an existing structure in the industrial park to produce the 18,250-square-foot workspace near its former site. The move consolidated all of the company’s fabrication work in West Virginia.

The company had six to seven employees in in its former site and now employs 13. Plans call for that number to increase to 16 by mid-May of this year.

Biser added that, subsequent to ISO certification, Truston was awarded, as one of just two companies, a new refurbishment and repair indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to support the Huntington District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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