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MBN USA

April 20, 2021

AQS’ cost-effective process helps clients manage inventory control

By Monica Stavish Skaggs

Hard work, a solid entrepreneurial spirit — and a few sleepless nights — are essential to success if you ask Brittany Stovall, co-founder and CEO of Assured Quality Systems LLC. Those strengths illustrate the enthusiasm she and co-founder and chief financial officer Paulina Sandoval bring to their certified women-owned minority business enterprise.

AQS is a risk management firm delivering quality assurance and technology solutions through ISO 9001-certified inspections, inventory staging, engineering support and Internet of Things, or IoT, to original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, and Tier I suppliers including Adient, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Toyota and Lear. The company solves complex OEM and Tier I challenges for manufacturers in 18 states and Mexico.

Formed in 2013, AQS is the south’s largest women- and minority-owned risk management provider. The company has grown from eight employees — mostly friends and family — to over 300, with offices in Dallas and San Antonio, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan. Its vision: Give manufacturers a systematic process to ensure manufacturing quality.

It’s all about customer support and a quality experience, Stovall said. That meant some sleepless nights in the early days as the company was getting off the ground.

“We work to understand our customers’ needs,” she said. “We always ask them what they need and what technologies we can acquire to help them. We’re a millennial-based company, and we’re not afraid to grow. We are always looking to evolve as a company.”

For example, the COVID-19 pandemic veered AQS into new territory. Recognizing the acute need for personal protective equipment among customers, Stovall and Sandoval took on new services to provide gloves, masks and hand sanitizers to clients, including all Major League Baseball teams.

AQS is also on the cutting edge with manufacturers as they develop in the autonomous driving era, which enables a vehicle’s automation to sense its environment and provide assistance to prevent human error.

“We help manufacturers manage their production and inventory control,” said Stovall, who began her career at General Motors Co. in Arlington, Texas, as a technical representative with TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., now ZF Friedrichshafen AG. “For example, we ask the question: ‘Is there an opportunity to rework a part to make it useable?’”

Go-getter attitudes

Stovall and Sandoval were in their mid-20s when they were introduced to each other by a colleague, Danny White — now a consultant with AQS in Tennessee.

“Paulina had experience in containment, and I had experience in engineering,” Stovall said. “[White] said, ‘You could be a quality assurance company.’”

Sandoval drove from Dallas to San Antonio to meet Stovall, and it was love at first sight as business partners.

“You never know who you’re going to meet in life,” Stovall added. “Danny is a white male, I’m African American and Paulina is Hispanic. He would always say, ‘Don’t ever think you can’t be a success.’ He’s been our biggest cheerleader.”

Named to Dallas Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Awards in 2020, she credits her parents with instilling her with a strong work ethic.

“My parents were entrepreneurs, so it’s in my blood, and it organically grew from there. My dad was in landscaping, and my mom was in interior design,” Stovall said. “They were always doers, and they set the bar very high. I learned it takes hard work.”

Sandoval also has a go-getter attitude. Her American dream began in her youth when her family immigrated to the United States from the state of Michoacán, Mexico, so she could receive life-saving cardiac procedures and treatments.

Both women share their success by giving back to the community and working with the disadvantaged. It’s all about having the right attitude and helping others achieve, Stovall said.

“I believe you can truly do what you want, if you apply discipline,” she said. “I think everybody has the ability to do whatever they want, if they apply themselves.”

To learn more about Assured Systems, visit assuredqualitysystems.com