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Purdue MEP Assistance Opens Business Opportunities for Defense Contractor

About

Valor Defense Solutions is a woman-owned small business in southern Indiana. As an experienced defense contractor and trusted community partner, they focus on providing custom solutions for their vast range of government and commercial clients. Valor provides logistical, engineering, and cabling support for government agencies, refurbishes military-grade equipment for the DOD, and delivers high-end sandblasting, painting, and powder coating services for a wide array of customers.

The Challenge

As a small business and defense contractor, Valor provides the highest quality products and services in support of the warfighter and the public sector. Seeking the necessary improvements to help open new doors and continue working with current defense contractors, Valor leadership connected with Purdue MEP, part of the MEP National Network™, and identified several areas within their organization needing assistance. 

Valor Defense Solutions, a woman-owned small business, supporting Naval Weapons Support Center Crane in the areas of Protective Coatings for Radar Systems and Electronic Module and Cable Manufacturing would like to extend our extreme appreciation to Purdue University Extension Partnership (MEP) for their support. They performed a GAP Analysis in preparation of a planned ISO 9001-2015 Quality Audit at Valor and aided with our Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) compliance. The MEP Program at Purdue University is user friendly, the personnel supporting the program are outstanding, and the assistance we have received is very instrumental in Valor’s preparation for the future. The cost assistance provided by this program is very helpful, much appreciated, and definitely helps ensure Valor Defense Solutions provides the best quality product to our military and the warfighter.

— Dr. Sue Davis, Chief Executive Officer

MEP's Role

Working with Valor, Purdue MEP outlined courses of action and timeframes. Three areas of improvement were identified: cybersecurity compliance, ISO 9001 audit, and workforce development. Purdue MEP connected Valor with resources to work through a multi-step cybersecurity program including gap analysis, remediation to meet the new NIST SP 800-171 standard, testing, validation, and support.

The next focus for Valor was completing an ISO 9001 gap analysis and preliminary audit to ensure Valor is prepared for ISO 9001 certification. A Purdue MEP quality specialist analyzed Valor’s current quality management system compared to the ISO 9001 standard and identified conformance and areas of improvement as required.

Purdue MEP was able to provide onsite training for the two-day geometric, dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) training and, recognizing these improvements were within the requirements of the Indiana Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Capability Accelerator Program (IDCAP), Purdue MEP assisted Valor in grant funding to offset a portion of the costs of these programs. 

Created April 28, 2022