AML GETS ISO COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY GENERATES NEW BUSINESS AND CREDIBILITY BY MEETING INDUSTRY-STANDARD EXPECTATIONS.

Byline: Krystn Shrieve Staff Writer

CAMARILLO - To retain customers, attract new business and improve efficiency, AML Communications recently registered with the International Organization of Standardization, a process that allows it to document most aspects of its operation.

AML Communications - which designs and manufactures amplifiers and related products for the global wireless communications industry - said it has been able to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

``The results have been favorable,'' said Kirk Waldron, the company's president and CEO. ``It's established a certain level of credibility because being ISO registered is almost becoming a minimum standard by which to represent yourself in the international market.''

The process - which comes from the Greek word isos meaning ``equal'' - was established in 1987 in Geneva, Switzerland by the International Organization of Standardization. It is a series of voluntary standards which allows companies to control and document how products are purchased and manufactured, how employees are trained, how records are kept - basically how, at all levels, the company is run.

The ISO system has been adopted by 150 countries around the world, said Bob Patti, managing director of the Ventura-Santa Barbara regional office of the California Manufacturing Technology Center, which helps local companies maneuver through the process.

``I certainly believe that it has helped our efficiency,'' Waldron said. ``We're engineering intensive and now our ability to process a unit through engineering and manufacturing is better documented.

``I can say that since we've gone through this process there's a whole lot less diversion than we had before because now there's a prescribed way to do things. It mitigates uncalled for variety.''

AML Communications is one of three Conejo Valley manufacturing companies that went through the 9- to 12-month process to gain ISO status. The others are Security Door Controls of Westlake Village and High Technology Solutions of Newbury Park.

High Technology Solutions, which manufactures aerospace hardware, wanted to improve its documenting system. Since going through the ISO process, the company estimated it reduced downtime by 30 percent and gained access to training for its employees through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The company expects to double in size in the next couple of years and has already hired two new employees - with a plan to hire a total of 10 - over the next two years.

Security Door Controls - whose customers include nuclear power plants, museums, hospitals, shopping malls, high-rise buildings and airports - has experienced a 10 percent increase in gross revenues and hired several new employees.

``We're amazed at how our sales are growing,'' said Gloria Marchand, the controller and ISO coordinator at Security Door Controls. ``This year we expect a 25 percent increase in revenues.''

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Photo: Now that AML Communications registered with the International Organization of Standardization, company operations like this one can be documented.