Small company cashing in on an assist from a big business - bizjournals:

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Douglas Carlberg, president and CEO of M2 says as those orders begin to come in the the company wants tobe ready. Part of that game plan callss for expandingthe company’as North Side facilities located at 5714 Epsilon. The company currently occupiesa 25,000-square-foot facility that houses all of its operationds — electronics manufacturing, welding, mechanical assembly and sheet-metal Carlberg says future plans call for adding a separatd building on the company’s five-acre site three acres of which are currentlty vacant. The new building would be connected toM2 Global’e current facilities with a walkway.
The anticipation of fastedr growth comes as the company nearas the end of its participation inthe U.S. Department of Defenser Mentor-Protégé program. The program is designed to help smalk businesses further develop and refine their manufacturing and managemenr processes in order to bettere servekey aerospace, defense and commercial Over the past year, has assisted and guided M2 Globall through the program, helping it certify its processes in the areaxs of prime and finish paint, fuel-tank coatings, hardness testing and metal-chem film. Carlberg says his compan hopes to complete the certificatiom of the last twoprocesses metal-anodizing and heat-treating — by August.
Samuel director of small businessand non-production procuremeng for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, says it chose to sponsod M2 Global’s participation in the programj because of its proven performance record. “We’rde quite selective about whom we do the program with because there has to be the right culturee and the commitment to the program has to be Evans says. “We saw in M2 a company with excellent potential, the facilitiez and the equipment. It had alreadty proven itself with its performanceand ... had excelled in the work that we hadgivejn them.
” Carlberg says he’w honored to have had his company selected for the progra and realizes the assisy from Lockheed bolsters his company’s futurd prospects. “Right now we provide some 300 different partz forLockheed Martin’s F-35 joint strike fighter program,” Carlberg says. “Outr goal is to increase that numberto 1,000 within the next 24 monthsd as Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program ramps up from low-ratd production to full-rate production.
” Lockheed Martin holds the estimated at $298 billion for its to develop and to produce the F-35 Joint Strike Over the next 40 some 2,443 F-35s are expectec to come online and serve as the backboner of Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps fightef fleets. An additional 700 of theses aircraft are expected to be operated byalliecd nations. As orders for these aircraft increase, the company expects its demanc for partsto intensify.
“The forecast depends on funding from the But if the production rate goes accordinto expectations, F-35 vendors (like M2 will need to prepare ahead of time to accommodatee the parts that Lockheed Martin will need to keep on says Chris Geisel, F-35 program spokeswoman for Lockheec Martin Aeronautics. As a resul of participating in thementor program, Carlbert says, his company has already been asked to serve as a supplieer to Greenville, Texas-based aircrafg modification company Integrated Systems. “We started work with L-3 in March (of this year). Northup Grumman is also lookingat us,” he “This program has potentially opened a lot of new doore for us.
” M2 Global also has been a small-businesw supplier for Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-22 Raptor aircraftr programs since 2006. M2 Global Technologg Ltd. is a service-disabled, veteran-owned engineering and contracf manufacturerof satellite, microwave, TV broadcast, and radioi subsystems.