1993. Kim Campbell was briefly Canada’s first female prime minister, the Toronto Blue Jays won their second World Series in as many years, and Master Flo Edmonton was awarded its API 6A license on May 17.
While the first two things in that list never happened again, like clockwork Master Flo has been successful in retaining its API 6A designation for the three straight decades since.
Which is a testament to the company’s commitment to quality, says Director of Corporate Quality Vick Mehta.
“Master Flo’s adherence to an API Q1 Quality Management System and to API 6A product requirements, serve as the foundations on which Master Flo has built technological leadership in the industry by providing highly reliable products to operate in tough operating conditions,” said Mehta as the anniversary approached.
Widely regarded as the gold standard when it comes to oil and gas equipment, being able to put the American Petroleum Institute monogram on your products is a source of pride, marker of technological achievement, and an important distinction for customers when narrowing their choices in the vast sea of products available to them.
Which makes it vitally important to have as you court Tier 1 end users across the globe.
“Most of the supermajors or big producers won’t even let you onto their approved manufacturer list (AML) without the API monogram affixed to your products,” explains Master Flo Director of Proposals and Project Management Michel Morel. “By having the API 6A license, we immediately demonstrate to these customers that the quality control and assurance systems we have in place are of high regard and the engineering that has gone into our products is advanced. They know the steps we have taken means they will be receiving a quality product before it even arrives.”
Another key department that deals heavily with everything API 6A entails and has contributed greatly to the past three decades of adherence is Master Flo’s vaunted engineering group. For Master Flo Applications Engineering Manager Peter Brzezicki, the specifications contained within the standard serve as the starting point for everything they’ve accomplished.
“Master Flo uses the requirements of API 6A to provide the foundation of our choke design and by using this foundation it has allowed us to continue to advance the design and the product line to where we are the leader in choke technology through ongoing design development and testing,” said Brzezicki when asked about the role it plays in his group’s work. “The consistent approach that API 6A requires from manufacturers with the design and qualification criteria allows Master Flo to continue to provide consistent, reliable and safe equipment to our end users.”
Covering wellhead and tree equipment, API Specification 6A, 21st Edition, went into effect in 2019, and governs the extent to which audits will be conducted. Something Master Flo has coming up in only a week.
“Since 1993 the API specifications have changed, our products have changed, our personnel has changed, our management and senior management has changed — but the one thing that hasn’t changed is the Master Flo culture to build a quality product manufactured to quality processes backed by a robust quality program,” Master Flo Director of Technology Larry Bohaychuk added in outlining why they have been so successful in retaining their API 6A certification.
That success, a total team effort according to Master Flo Quality Assurance Coordinator Laura Reykjalin.
“The technical and quality requirements of this product license are integrated into our quality management system, so it involves every employees’ effort to achieve and maintain,” said Reykjalin. “API audits are extremely thorough and robust and the amount of documentation they review requires a year-round commitment from our various teams to hold themselves to an extremely high standard.”
For 30 years, the employees of Master Flo Edmonton, and chokes which fall under its API 6A certification, have met that high standard. Earning the company and its products a reputation of excellence across the world, and a pedigree that can be traced back to that defining day of May 17, 1993.
